Al Qaeda ‘plans to attack high-speed trains in Europe’
Al Qaeda is planning attacks on high-speed trains in Europe and the authorities in Germany have stepped up security on the country’s rail system, a German newspaper reported yesterday.
The information about the planned attacks came from the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA), which apparently intercepted a call between senior al Qaeda members several weeks ago, the mass-circulation Bild daily said.
However, the German Interior Ministry said it regularly received information about such threats and was not planning to increase overall security.
“It is known that Germany, along with other Western states, is a target for jihadist terrorists so we always assess warnings on a case-by-case basis, but we already have a high level of protective measures and we do not plan to step these up at the moment,” spokesman Jens Teschke said at a government news conference.
The scandal surrounding the NSA’s global electronic spying operation has become a major headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of the Sep 22 election. Government snooping is a sensitive subject in Germany due to the heavy surveillance of citizens in the former communist East and under Hitler’s Nazis.
Bild said German authorities had tightened security on high-speed Intercity-Express (ICE) routes and at stations with “invisible measures“, including the deployment of plain clothes police officers.
A spokesman for the German federal police said efforts were already commensurate with the “highly dangerous situation both at home and abroad”, but said it had alerted its forces.
The newspaper report cited unnamed security experts as saying the attacks could include acts of sabotage on rail infrastructure or bombings onboard trains.
A spokeswoman for German rail operator Deutsche Bahn would not comment on the Bild report, but said the company was always in regular contact with the security authorities over possible threats.
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