England fans warned about likely Moscow-style ISIS terror attack at Euros
German security authorities have warned that ISIS terrorists could be planning a Moscow-style attack during the Euros.
The warning came as England fans were making their way to Frankfurt, where the Three Lions play Denmark on Thursday.
In March, Islamic jihadists from ISIS-K slaughtered 144 people at a concert venue in Moscow.
Concert goers were mowed down in cold blood by four gunmen, who then set fire to the building.
At a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Germany’s interior ministry warned the country was “in the crosshairs of jihadist organisations, in particular ISIS and ISIS-K.”
Officials said the danger of Islamist terrorism had increased since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV), added: “A possible scenario is a large-scale, co-ordinated attack of the kind we recently saw in Moscow.”
He said that ISIS-K was “certainly the most dangerous group” and had succeeded in smuggling into western Europe among refugees fleeing Ukraine.
The intelligence chief revealed the organisation had been urging its members to carry out mass terror attacks on “soft targets” in Europe.
He also emphasised that so-called “lone wolves” continued to pose one of the biggest threats to public security.
Germany has deployed 22,000 police officers to reinforce border, railway and airport security for the duration of the four-week tournament. Berlin has also drafted in officers from overseas, to help keep fans safe.
The warning comes after a series of attacks carried out by individuals which have shaken the country.
A policeman was stabbed to death and several other people were injured by an Afghan knifeman at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim at the end of May.
On Friday evening, German police in Wolmirstedt, a town close to the capital, shot dead another Afghan attacker who killed a compatriot and wounded three others at a viewing party for the tournament’s opening match.
And at the weekend, German police were also forced to shoot an axe-wielding man who was holding a Molotov cocktail at a fan-zone in Hamburg.
Source » express
