Germany arrests Syrian national over ‘plot to kill soldiers with two machetes’

The 27-year-old is a suspected supporter of radical Islamic ideology, according to the Munich public prosecutor's office

A police car drives on the grounds of the Upper Franconia barracks, in Hof, Germany. (AP)

An alleged Islamic extremist has been arrested in connection with plotting an attack on German soldiers during their lunch break in Munich, authorities have said.

The 27-year-old Syrian is a suspected supporter of radical Islamic ideology, according to the Munich public prosecutor's office.

The accused obtained two machetes approximately 40 cm (15.75 inches) long. He planned to attack soliders in the Bavarian town of Hof who were spending their lunch break there, and to kill as many of them as possible, a statement said.

"With the act, the accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of uncertainty among the population," it said.

The suspect was brought before a judge on Friday following his arrest a day earlier, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

His name was not released in line with German privacy rules.

The arrest comes after an attack in Solingen in August that left three people dead and eight wounded. A 26-year-old Syrian suspect was arrested. He was an asylum-seeker who was supposed to be deported to Bulgaria last year but reportedly disappeared for a time and avoided deportation.

Isis claimed responsibility for the violence, without providing evidence.

The violence left Germany shaken and pushed immigration back to the top of the country's political agenda. In response, the interior ministry extended temporary border controls to all of its nine frontiers this week. The closures are set to last six months and are threatening to test European unity.

Unauthorised migration to European Union countries dropped significantly overall in the first eight months of this year, even as political rhetoric around migration increased.

Despite the heated debates, irregular crossings over the southern borders of the EU – the region that sees the most unauthorised migration – were down by 35 per cent from January to August, according to the latest preliminary figures compiled by the United Nation's International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Nearly 115,000 migrants, less than 0.03 per cent of the EU's population — have arrived without permission into the EU via Mediterranean and Atlantic routes so far this year, compared to 176,252 during the same period last year, the UN says. In contrast, more than a million people, most of them fleeing conflict in Syria, entered the EU in 2015, with Germany taking in the largest share of refugees.

Data shared by the EU's border and coast guard agency Frontex shows a similar trend: Unauthorized crossings over the region's southern borders fell 39 per cent overall this year compared to last year.

"The emergency is not numerical this year, nor was it last year," Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesperson with the IOM office for the Mediterranean said.

Associated Press