A fifth suspect has been detained over an alleged threat of an attack on Cologne Cathedral over the festive period, Germany authorities have said.
The 41-year-old German-Turkish man was detained on Sunday night in the western city of Bochum in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Police detained three people on Sunday morning and one man last week.
All the suspects allegedly belong to a larger Islamic extremist network which included people across Germany and in other European countries, according to Cologne police chief Johannes Hermanns, German news agency dpa reported.
The other four suspects were detained in different cities across North Rhine-Westphalia.
The one detained last week was identified as a 30-year-old Tajik man.
No details were given for the three detained on Sunday morning.
The attack was supposed to have been carried out on New Year’s Eve with a car loaded with explosives, local media reported.
Cologne police said in a press conference on Sunday that the cathedral’s underground car park had been searched and explosives detection dogs deployed, though nothing was found.
The entrance and exit had also been checked for suspicious activity.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister Herbert Reul on Sunday called the latest detentions a “success, for which I would like to thank the investigators”.
Islamic extremists have always been active but they are currently more active than usual and the Catholic cathedral was a prime target for them, Mr Reul said, according to dpa.
“The police always try to be a few steps ahead,” he added.
Police got information about a planned militant attack on Cologne Cathedral just before Christmas.
The city’s world-famous cathedral has been under high protection for a week and the threat led to the closure of the house of worship for tourists.
