Bomb threat at US air base in Germany

Police and US security forces mounted a major operation in Germany following a bomb threat at an American air base.

The Spangdahlem base in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate was secured following a call from a man, TV news reports said.

The man – speaking German, possibly with a Russian or Turkish accent – called a publicly-listed number at the base at Spangdahlem yesterday evening, one day before today’s sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, police in nearby Trier said.

He threatened to attack the base with at least four accomplices, and the word “bombs” was mentioned, according to a police statement.

The US military immediately informed German police, who took “immediate measures to protect the air base,” the statement said.

Police spokesman Reinhard Rothgerber said those measures were still in place today.

“That means that the protection of this facility, which is at a high level anyway, was intensified further,” he said.

Police were trying to track down the anonymous caller.

Germany is particularly sensitive to possible terrorist threats after three men were arrested in last week on suspicion of planning massive bomb attacks.