German police detained an asylum seeker suspected of belonging to Islamic State, the federal prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
(WSJ)- In the latest evidence of the mounting terror threat posed by the arrival last year of hundreds of thousands of migrants into the country.
The 27-year-old man, identified as Syrian, was taken into custody in the capital Berlin late Wednesday, and his flat in the city’s Schöneberg district was searched, the prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor has until the end of Thursday to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to keep holding the man.
An official familiar with the case said the suspect might in fact be a Tunisian who used Syrian identification.
As the wave of migrants entering the county peaked late last year, authorities brushed aside suggestions that the surge could include attackers smuggled by ISIS. A year later, a lengthening list of arrests and a series of attacks by refugees have led officials to reassess the threat and raise alarms about security.
“It is very good this man was taken off the streets,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said. “Security services had been watching him for some time.”