Germany foils suspected Boston-style attack, officials noted

Frankfurt

German authorities

Frankfurt’s chief prosecutor, Albrecht Schreiber

Eschborn to Frankfurt race

Stefan Mueller

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Friday 01 May 2015 - 15:16 Makkah mean time-12-7-1436 German police officers secure evidence in front of an apartment in Oberursel, Germany (AP Photo) Frankfurt, (IINA) - German authorities foiled what they believe may have been an imminent Boston Marathon-style attack on a professional cycling race planned for Friday, according to media reports. The authorities during a raid on a suspected extremist’s home outside Frankfurt seized a cache of weapons, including a pipe bomb, and chemicals that can be used to make explosives German forces detained a 35-year-old Turkish-German man and his 34-year-old Turkish wife in the raid in the town of Oberursel. The couple, whose names weren’t released in line with Germany's privacy rules, had been under surveillance. Suspicions were heightened when police recently observed the male suspect, a trained chemist, apparently scouting out the area where the race was due to take place, said Frankfurt’s chief prosecutor, Albrecht Schreiber. The race was supposed to pass through Oberursel. Security officials were worried that the couple may have been targeting the one-day Eschborn to Frankfurt race, which draws around 200 professional riders and thousands of spectators on the May Day public holiday. Police said the race would be canceled in case the couple had accomplices, or they placed as-yet undetected explosive devices along the route. “The result of the raid shows that our suspicions were confirmed,” Schreiber told reporters Thursday at a news conference in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse. “According to our current information, we have prevented an attack,” said Stefan Mueller, the chief of police for western Hesse state. In the Boston Marathon attack in USA, three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two bombs exploded at the finish line on April 15, 2013. SM/IINA