BERLIN: Berlin authorities detained a terror suspect Thursday accused of plotting a bomb attack in the German capital and searched a mosque, the daily Berliner Morgenpost reported.
The arrest comes ahead of the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and a planned visit to the city by Pope Benedict XVI later this month.
Police believe the man, who was captured Thursday morning in Berlin, was planning a bomb attack with an accomplice, according to the report.
Prosecutors launched a probe on "suspicion of preparing a major violent crime against the state".
The Berlin police and prosecutor's office could not immediately be reached for comment.
The suspects are a 24-year-old German man of Lebanese origin and a 28-year-old man from the Gaza Strip who regularly attended a mosque in the working class district of Wedding and occasionally spent the night there, the Morgenpost said.
Authorities say they had acquired several coolants and an acid normally used in farming with the aim of using them to build an explosive, the newspaper said.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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