German authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of three individuals suspected of planning a "serious act of violence endangering the state," believed to be linked to Islamist extremism.
"Extensive investigations by the law enforcement authorities involved confirmed the suspicion that the two brothers had made concrete preparations for an attack due to their established religious ideology and deep sympathy for the Islamist terrorist organization Islamic State (IS)," the Karlsruhe public prosecutor's office added.
According to the statement, the suspects were apprehended on Sunday. Among them are two brothers, aged 15 and 20, who are German-Lebanese and hail from Mannheim. The third individual is a 22-year-old German-Turkish man from the state of Hessen. During the arrests, an assault rifle and ammunition were discovered and confiscated.