Germans react to tip on ‘ISIS attack’

German police on Friday lifted an alert of an imminent attack in Munich, hours after evacuating two key train stations over fears jihadists were planning a New Year suicide bomb assault.

Speaking at a news conference Friday, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said the decision to temporarily shut down two major railway stations in the city was taken after German officials received a “very concrete” tip that militants from Iraq and Syria were planning suicide attacks in the area at midnight.

In Brussels, authorities canceled the city’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display as a precaution amid fears of a militant attack. He said no arrests had been made and called on the city’s residents to be cautious, but to continue their lives as normal. On Twitter and Facebook, Munich police asked people to avoid crowded places amid the ongoing New Year celebrations.

Just 90 minutes before the New Year, police evacuated Munich’s main rail station and one other terminus in the west of the city.

In Istanbul, a bridge between the continents of Europe and Asia, police said they had ramped up the number of officers on the streets by around 10,000.

Various German media outlets, including the regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk and the state broadcaster ZDF, cited anonymous sources inside the security services as saying the police had received three similar intelligence tipoffs from French intelligence services in recent weeks, and that they had been dismissed as not credible.

Germany had been tipped off by both United States and French authorities, it said.

“At this point we don’t know if these names are correct, if these people even exist, or where they might be”, Andrae said on January 1. / AFP / Christof STACHECHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images German special police stand in front of the Munich, southern Germany, main train station Thursday evening, December 31, 2015 after police warned of “imminent threat” of terror attack and ordered two train stations to be cleared.

The FBI accused Emmanuel Lutchman of plotting to carry out an attack in the name of ISIS at a Rochester-area bar on New Year’s Eve.

However according to a later tweet from the Munich police, both train stations were opened early Friday with a continued police presence.

Belgian police were also holding five people over an alleged New Year plot in Brussels. “Right now the threat level is the same as it has been… since the Paris attacks, ‘ he said”.