German authorities arrested two teenage boys in North Rhine-Westphalia who planned to carry out a deadly terrorist attack on the Cologne Christmas market or a synagogue in the same city in an online chatroom.
The boys, one aged 15 and the other 16, are considered to be sympathizers of Islamic State (ISIS), according to authorities.
The 15-year-old is considered a “relevant person” on the Islamist scene. From the same medieval town of Wittstock in Brandenburg, he had already been on the counter-terrorist police’s radar for spreading jihadist propaganda. He carried a knife on his person when arrested on Tuesday morning.
Following the arrest, the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, told the media the danger of Islamist terrorist attacks in Germany “is real and as high as it has not been for a long time.”
This is not the first incident in which Christmas markets have been the target of terrorism, as the annual Berlin market witnessed an Islamist terrorist drive into the event’s attendees with a truck, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more in December 2016.
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