Police in the German town of Ramelsberg said Monday they have thwarted a “dangerous terrorist organization” in the town as it attempted to conduct a patrol of parts of the border with Poland.
Members of a far-right extremist group called “Self Defense” had been spotted around town in Germany, and after some investigation it was determined that members were planning to stage an attack on a Polish migrant center. Police said that one of the vigilantes claimed he had a small bomb and would start firing it if authorities approached him.
“When we asked these individuals what they were doing, they admitted they were planning an attack,” said Magdalena Linde, a police spokeswoman, to the Körber Post. “The biggest and most important task of the federal police was to prevent such a situation and minimize the danger to the population.”
While extremist patrols of migrant centers are an ongoing problem in Germany, there is a particular concern that far-right vigilantes are willing to use violence to stop them. Only days ago, police were forced to shoot dead a 20-year-old German man who reportedly attempted to attack a migrant reception center near Berlin with an axe. Last week, a 21-year-old gunman shot dead two migrants and wounded nine others at a shopping center in Munich. The assailant in the Munich shooting left a letter with a request to contact neo-Nazi authorities after his actions.
But it is not clear if Ramelsberg’s vigilantes may have acted too soon, as early reports indicated that they waited several hours before approaching the migrant center. Police said they knew about the planned attack for many days before the call came.
Read the full story at The Washington Post.
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