GERMANY: Two bombs discovered on trains last month may have been part of terrorist plot designed to send signal about Middle East crisis, say federal police

Record ID: 351876

  • Title: GERMANY: Two bombs discovered on trains last month may have been part of terrorist plot designed to send signal about Middle East crisis, say federal police
  • Date: 19th August 2006
  • Summary: (EU) WIESBADEN, GERMANY (2006)(REUTERS) PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PICTURES OF EVIDENCE VARIOUS OF PICTURES SHOWING EVIDENCE SUITCASES ALARM CLOCKS PHOTOGRAPHERS WITH EVIDENCE 'WANTED' PICTURES NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE)(German) PRESIDENT OF THE GERMAN FEDERAL CRIME OFFICE JOERG ZIERCKE SAYING: "The scenario would have been as such: two simultaneous explosions in regional trai
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA4N4G1EMMSWLPF2TY2RA0RWDRV
  • Story Text: Two potentially deadly bombs discovered on trains in Germany last month may have been part of a terrorist plot designed to send a signal about the Middle East crisis, federal police said on Friday (August 19, 2006).
    Federal prosecutors launched a probe earlier this month into a possible terrorist link after luggage with propane gas was found on trains at stations in the western towns of Dortmund and Koblenz.
    Joerg Ziercke, president of the federal crime office (BKA), told a news conference in Wiesbaden that preliminary findings pointed to a planned simultaneous attack which could have killed many people.
    "What could have happened would have been so dramatic that we in Germany could have never imagined it," Joerg Ziercke, president of the federal crime office (BKA), told a news conference in Wiesbaden.
    "It's more likely than unlikely that there was a terrorist background," he added.
    The bombs were fitted with timers set to go off 10 minutes before the trains arrived in the two cities. The explosives had been ignited but failed to detonate.
    The police found a bag of starch with Arabic print and a shopping list in Arabic for olives, bread and Lebanese yoghurt.
    They are looking for two male suspects, both 20-30 years old, caught on video cameras boarding the trains in Cologne.
    "It is possible that the suspects wanted to send a signal amid the crisis in the Middle East," Ziercke said, referring to the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon that erupted last month.
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