German Police detains Syrian asylum-seeker suspected of plotting terrorist attack

A German special police unit has detained a 24-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker whom they suspected of plotting a terrorist attack during the opening of the national soccer league season.

The cops arrested the suspect on Friday in the city of Mutterstadt in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate after the authorities in Duisburg received a tip about a possible attack, said the North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Ministry, adding that the suspect has been questioned and will remain in detention pending the outcome of the investigation.

However, the officials have yet not confirmed if the suspect had links to the Islamic State but said that the investigation was continuing, reports the New York Times.

Germany has been on high alert after four terror attacks, including two linked to the Islamic State, in a span of six days last month.

Last year, Germany took in nearly one million migrants and refugees, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. But resistance to the newcomers has been increasing in the country amid growing fears that Islamic extremists may have infiltrated posing as refugees.