Munich police remain on alert following New Year Eve threat

Police in Munich are hunting Islamic State suspects after a foreign intelligence agency warned of a “concrete” plan to send suicide bombers to the city’s train stations during New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Just shortly before the city rang in the new year, Munich police had evacuated the main train station and a station in the Pasing neighborhood.

However, investigators were unable to offer further details on the potential suspects and Andrae told reporters “maybe the people do not even exist”.

The two stations were shut down and evacuated around midnight, while special unit police officers armed with automatic weapons were stationed at entrances.

Police closed the stations about an hour before midnight, and reopened them hours later.

“Overall I would say that the situation for Munich is as it was before this threat of attack”, Mr Andrae said. Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that the attacks were to take place in two waves with the second detonations coming as rescuers arrived at the scene to treat victims.

He said authorities are investigating intensively, but so far had not made any arrests.

Thomas de Maiziere, interior minister in the federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said: “The situation in Europe and also in Germany remains serious in the New Year”.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae added that information suggested that “five to seven” suspects were planning to carry out a “suicide attack”.

In a security update, Munich police also issued a statement saying that “following investigations, there is now no concrete risk of an attack” in the city.

It is imperative to state that days after the Paris attack, a stadium in Hannover was evacuated after a terror threat against a friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands.

European capitals are on high security alert, with Brussels and Paris both scrapping fireworks for New Year’s celebrations.

According to the reports, all three had claimed that a team of Isis-affiliated terrorists was planning to attack the Munich stations using the same tactics as in Paris, when men opened fire on crowds with Kalashnikovs before detonating explosive suicide belts.

In an apparent effort to allay those concerns, Germany said on Thursday it would start holding personal hearings for asylum seekers from Syria as of Friday, reversing a policy of granting nearly automatic refugee status for Syrians.

A planned fireworks display in Brussels, Belgium, was canceled Wednesday night over fears of an attack. That echoed French president François Hollande, who said in his New Year’s Eve address that authorities were “regularly disrupting planned attacks”.