US tip helped thwart terror attack in Germany: report

A U.S. tip helped thwart a terror attack in Germany, helping German special police forces arrested a Syrian man Tuesday who was planning an extremist attack, The Associated Press reported.

Federal prosecutors described the man as a 26-year-old “radical Islamist” who was organizing an attack designed to “kill and injure a maximum number of people,” in a statement obtained by the AP.

Martin Steltner, a spokesman for Berlin state prosecutors, said the man had entered Germany in 2014 as an asylum seeker and resided under “protected” status. Steltner would not comment on where the tip came from, according to the AP.

A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told the AP that the tip came from an American and German partnership and cooperation in law enforcement and intelligence efforts. 

The suspect reportedly looked up online how to build bombs and discuss plans for an attack in internet chats, which Berlin’s top security official Andreas Geisel told the dpa news agency came from an “allied foreign intelligence service.” 

He had allegedly gathered supplies since January, including chemicals like acetone and hydrogen peroxide, for a bomb. The timing and location of the reported planned attack is unknown. The suspect was a cleaner at a Berlin elementary school and the Bode Museum, according to the news wire.