Germany Detains Russian Man Suspected of Planning Islamist Attack

German police on Wednesday detained a Russian man suspected of planning a bomb attack in Germany after turning to radical Islam, prosecutors said.

Police said the 31-year-old suspect, named as Magomed-Ali C. under German privacy rules, had acted collectively with a French national, Clement B., who was detained in Marseille, France, in April last year.

Magomed-Ali. C, arrested in a raid on his apartment in Berlin, had stored large quantities of the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, in October 2016, a statement by the General Prosecutor’s Office said.

An unstable homemade explosive, TATP has been used by terrorists in several attacks in western Europe, including in Manchester, Britain, in May last year, Brussels in 2016 and Paris in 2015.

The suspect had planned to detonate the device at an unspecified location in Germany to kill and injure a maximum number of people, the statement said.

Clement B. is accused of planning an attack using explosives with another French national, also now under arrest. The two Frenchmen had met while sharing a cell in prison and were known to police as having turned to radical Islam, French prosecutors said last year.

German police took measures in October 2016 to stop efforts by Clement B. and Magomed-Ali C. to plan for an attack, German prosecutors said. The prosecutor’s statement did not say why Magomed-Ali C. was not arrested at the time.

Fearing police detection, the two suspects decided to part ways and Clement B. left Germany for France at the end of October 2016.

Magomed-Ali C. will appear before a judge on Thursday when prosecutors said they will request he be kept in custody.