Germany on High Alert after Suspected Bomb is Dismantled Near Christmas Market in Potsdam

[Arkain2K]

Suspected Bomb is Dismantled Near Christmas Market in Potsdam
Police evacuate center of German city, dismantle device, amid heightened holiday security
By William Wilkes and Zeke Turner | Dec. 1, 2017

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German police found and defused a suspected bomb near a Christmas market in the center of Potsdam on Friday amid heightened terrorism concerns in Germany.

Police ordered the evacuation of the city center after the device was found. A high-powered water jet was used to dismantle the device, which police described as a cylindrical with batteries, nails and cables, according to state police. A police spokesman said a detonator hadn’t been found.

Authorities in Potsdam didn’t say whether they had a suspect or viewed the incident as terrorism. Potsdam, a city of 165,000 people about 45 minutes drive from Berlin, is the capital of Brandenburg State.

Germany is on high alert for Christmas season one year after a truck rampage killed 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin. Police armed with semiautomatic pistols and submachine guns are patrolling markets and SWAT teams are on standby.

Roads leading to Christmas markets in German cities and towns have been barricaded with concrete blocks, heavy vehicles or bags containing gravel and sand. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière last week said security at Christmas markets “looks different to how it did in previous years, and that is a good thing.”

This year a new call for terrorist attacks on Christmas markets surfaced online in late November, showing an Islamic State fighter dressed in black leaning over a Santa Claus with his hands bound with rope. A message beneath read “Soon on Your holidays” in English, French and German.

Islamic extremists “churn this stuff out all the time,” said Raffaello Pantucci, a counterterrorism expert at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute. “They present Christmas as the enemy’s religious festival, it will always be a target for them.”

Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency’s latest figures show that the number of potential Islamist terrorists in the country had risen to 1,870 from 1,600 since January. The BKA, Germany’s version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in October it is running almost 1,000 antiterror investigations, up from 750 in 2016.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bomb-i...-christmas-market-1512151354?tesla=y&mod=e2fb

 

[KnightTemplar]

Christmas Market of Peace.

 

[Lord_Impaler]

No one could've predicted this.

 

[Arkain2K]

Christmas Market of Peace.

...on Earth.

 

[trac209]

Hmm Merkel has a secret Santa how nice. Frankincense,myrrh and a little c4.

 

[mb23100]

If only they had called it a holiday market

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

Attack of the Asians Part # 99,346

 

[Curmudgeon]

Muslims muslimung. Is normal.

 

[trac209]

None of the “usual” apologist in here yet... with the but this but that bs.

 

[TheGreatA]

Not sure what the jihadists have against Germany. It's a Salafist safe haven.

 

[RIPWarrior]

Look at all of those Germans living in fear. What a bunch of pussies.

Also not handing over your country makes you the biggest pussy on earth.

 

[Orgasmo]

Part and parcel of open border

 

[snakedafunky]

It sounds like this was a false Alarm. Someone was sending a fake bomb to a pharmacy.
It seems to had a large firecracker inside. But it didn't have any trigger.

Seems strange because it was sent via mail. Looks more like a "joke"?

 

[trac209]

It sounds like this was a false Alarm. Someone was sending a fake bomb to a pharmacy.
It seems to had a large firecracker inside. But it didn't have any trigger.

Seems strange because it was sent via mail. Looks more like a "joke"?

story I read said it was defused. So idk what to think

 

[snakedafunky]

story I read said it was defused. So idk what to think

I only got a source in German but according to the cops.
It was a large firecracker inside a box with cables and a battery(I assume to make it look like a bomb?) and screws.
But after they defused it they couldn't find any trigger.
http://www.bild.de/news/2017/weihnachtsmarkt/potsdam-weihnachtsmarkt-evakuiert-54052472.bild.html

Edit: Defused might be the wrong word here. They opened it with those bomb squad robots that have a high pressure water cannon.

 

[Stoic1]

Probing attempt.

Don't worry you know they gonna blow something up in these crowds. Because diversity and tolerance and all that stuff.

 

[splendica]

At least it wasn't a stereotypical bad Asian driver in a rented moving truck plowing through the crowded market due to the ideology of being a stereotypical bad Asian driver.

 

[splendica]

I only got a source in German but according to the cops.
It was a large firecracker inside a box with cables and a battery(I assume to make it look like a bomb?) and screws.
But after they defused it they couldn't find any trigger.
http://www.bild.de/news/2017/weihnachtsmarkt/potsdam-weihnachtsmarkt-evakuiert-54052472.bild.html

Edit: Defused might be the wrong word here. They opened it with those bomb squad robots that have a high pressure water cannon.

Probably was an innocent science project that should be brought to the Obama residence.

 

[Skulli]

No doubt some krouts will go boom these holidays, happy a akbar.

 

[Teppodama]

No one died, that's all that really matters. Be well Germany, I hope December is a quiet month for you and yours.