"Yesterday, we received very serious indications from security sources that a possible attack was planned here for today and would be carried out," a spokesman for Essen police told Reuters Television. Earlier, a police spokesman told a German broadcaster they believed the Limbecker Platz shopping center was under threat of a possible terrorist attack. Armed police and vans surrounded the shopping center, one of the biggest in Germany with more than 200 retail outlets, but roads nearby were open to traffic. In the afternoon, police said they had searched an apartment in the nearby town of Oberhausen and the owner was being questioned. The police gave no further details apart from saying the investigations in Oberhausen were linked to the Essen operation.

Source: bd News24 March 11, 2017 16:32 UTC