German detectives investigating papers and a computer found at the flat of a couple linked to a suspected bomb plot told dpa on Saturday that they have found Islamist videos stored on the drives.
Wiesbaden, Germany (dpa) - The videos are of a violent nature and relate to Islamist extremism, a spokesman in Wiesbaden for the Office of Criminal Investigation for the state of Hesse said, without giving further details. During a raid in the town of Oberursel on Thursday, a special police unit arrested the couple, aged 34 and 35, both with a Turkish background, and seized a pipe bomb, ammunition, a G3 assault rifle and a drill grenade for a bazooka.
The ethnologist Susanne Schroeter.
On Friday, police carried out a search along the route of a bicycle race due to pass through Frankfurt, Germany‘s financial hub. The race was cancelled due to the terrorist threat, with one day‘s notice. The spokesman said the search was over, with nothing suspicious discovered.
The papers and computer taken on Saturday could take "days or even weeks" to go through, the spokesman said, stressing that police were still looking for possible accomplices.
One expert told dpa there would most certainly be others involved in the plot.
"Anyone can build a bomb, but as a rule it is the case that Salafist perpetrators have support around them," said Susanne Schroeter, director of the Frankfurt Research Centre of Global Islam.
The members of the support network radicalize each other and discuss their thoughts, she added.
Salafism is an ultra-conservative form of Islam that has been linked to terrorism.
The case has launched a wider political debate in the Frankfurt area. A mosque association called for greater Muslim participation in society to prevent a drift into radical networks.
"Politicians should not start reacting when it is too late," a spokesman from the Imam Hossein Islamic Culture Association in Wiesbaden said.
He noted that anyone successfully incorporated into society wants to protect and not damage it.
The populist and eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Frankfurt called for tougher powers for the authorities, while the centre-right CDU party demanded a ban on all Salafist activities in Germany.
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