A 32-year-old Iranian man was arrested in western Germany on suspicion of planning an attack with deadly chemicals, according to police officials on Sunday (January 8). An official statement said the police officers searched a residence in the Castrop-Rauxel town for “toxic substances” intended to carry out an attack. Several days back, authorities were tipped off about an attack with a chemical bomb by a foreign intelligence service, a report said.
According to investigators, the Iranian man was suspected of having hatched a serious act of violence threatening the security of the state by obtaining ‘Cyanide and Ricin’ in an abortive attempt to commit an Islamist attack.
A report by the news agency AFP, citing local media, said raids at the residence in Castrop-Rauxel were carried out by agents dressed in protective suits.
A 32-year-old Iranian man has been arrested from the Castrop-Rauxel town, northwest of Dortmund in Germany on suspicion of planning an attack with deadly chemicals, officials said Sunday. They added that the man is suspected to have planned an attack motivated by Islamic extremism, for which he had obtained the potent toxins cyanide and ricin.
The Iranian man, who was arrested shortly before Saturday midnight, was “suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence threatening the security of the state by obtaining cyanide and ricin with a view to committing an Islamist attack,” investigators said on Sunday.
Ricin, a highly toxic substance, is classified as a chemical weapon in Germany. It can cause death within 36 to 72 hours of exposure, depending on the route of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, or injection) and the dose received, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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The police, meanwhile, said the Iranian man will be presented to an investigating judge in the coming days ahead of possible pre-trial detention. The police also said that another person, said to be the man’s brother, has been taken into custody, the AFP report said.
Back in 2018, a Tunisian couple was arrested by German authorities on suspicion of planning a biological bomb attack in the country. The couple, who were sympathisers of the Islamic state, possessed 84 milligrams of Ricin in their apartment in Cologne. The man and the woman were sentenced to 10 and eight years imprisonment respectively.
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