German cops arrest Syrian migrant who ‘asked ISIS for £150k to convert cars into suicide bombs to kill crowds of non-Muslims’
Failed terrorist wanted to carry out mass killings similar to the Berlin Christmas market attack
ARMED police commandos seized a Syrian refugee in Germany who texted an Islamic State operative to fund bomb attacks he was planning with multiple explosive-filled cars.
He was arrested in Saarbrücken - a town on the border with France - on New Year's Eve after intelligence officials intercepted his bid to raise cash for carnage.
"The unemployed 38-year-old with refugee status urged an Isis contact via his mobile phone message service Telegram to send him €180,000," said prosecutors.
He asked for money "so he could purchase vehicles which he could load with explosives and which he wanted to drive into crowds... and blow up in order to kill unknown numbers of people who do not follow the Muslim faith", added prosecutors.
At 2.00am on December 31 heavily armed officers of the elite anti-terror SEK unit swooped on the apartment of Hasan K.
in case the bomb plot was advanced and New Year's Eve revellers were to be targeted hours later.
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Prosecutors said the message seeking support for his plot was sent to an Isis commander in the Syrian city of Raqqa, capital of its so-called caliphate.
The plan involved disguising bought and stolen cars as emergency vehicles - police cars, ambulances, fire brigade transport - and driving them laden with explosives into large groups of people.
Crowds were allegedly to be targetted in Berlin - scene of the Christmas market massacre on December 19 when 12 people were killed and 48 injured when Isis assassin Anis Amri drove an articulated lorry into a crowd - Munich, Stuttgart, Essen and Dortmund.
Other attacks were planned in France, Belgium and The Netherlands, presumably with accomplices provided by Isis.
According to prosecutors his mobile telephone yielded up a wealth of information about his contacts with Isis. But he told police he invented the story to get money to give to his family back in his homeland and that no real attack was being planned.
Hasan A. is being held in custody on charges of attempting to finance terror. He entered Germany in December 2014 and applied for asylum in January 2015, obtaining refugee status and a residency permit.
According to messages found on his phone, the man said each vehicle would be re-painted and packed with 400-500 kilogrammes of explosives at a cost of €22,500 each, prosecutors added.
Investigators said there was no evidence he had obtained and prepared any cars for an attack.
The arrest comes after a suspected killer was believed to be planning a Berlin-style lorry massacre, police believe.
Armed police were out in force on Britain's streets across the Christmas and New Years period in the wake of the attack in Germany.
Berlin attacker Anis Amri was shot dead by Italian cops on December 23 after he went on the run.
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