Thread: Real or Hoax to Ruin Munich's New Year Celebration

I am wondering if this threat is real, or just a hoax to ruin Germany's New Year Celebration?

CBS/AP December 31, 2015, 5:36 PM
Police warn of "imminent" terror attack in Munich
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Last Updated Dec 31, 2015 11:49 PM EST

MUNICH, Germany -- With less than an hour to go before midnight on New Year's Eve, police in one of Germany's largest cities warned residents of the "imminent threat" of a possible terror attack.

Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters early Friday morning at Munich's police headquarters authorities had received information that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group was behind the threat.

Munich police president Hubertus Andrae said German authorities had been tipped off by a foreign intelligence service that ISIS was planning attacks with five to seven suicide bombers, the German news agency dpa reported.

Andrae said so far there hadn't been any arrests.

Shortly after 11 p.m. local time, Munich Police sent a tweet telling residents to avoid crowds, including at the city's main train stations.


"Current indications that in # Munich a terrorist attack is planned," the police department tweeted. "Please avoid crowds and the train stations Hauptbahnhof + Pasing."

Police spokesman Werner Kraus told The Associated Press that "after evaluating the situation, we started evacuating the train stations and also asked partygoers to stay away from big crowds outside."

munich-2.jpg
German police secure the main train station in Munich early on January 1, 2016, after saying on Twitter they had received a tip regarding a planned terrorist attack. REUTERS
Despite the police statement, thousands of people were on the streets of Munich at midnight to welcome the new year with fireworks.

Dpa reported massive delays in the city's public transportation system as the train stations were quickly evacuated with trains no longer stopping there. Both stations reopened several hours later.



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Security concerns evident in European New Year's celebrations
Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is a city of more than 1.4 million people in southeastern Germany.

As CBS News foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported, Europe has been on edge in the six weeks following the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

However, not even terrorist threats could keep Europeans from ringing in the New Year -- though every capital city was saturated with security, especially Paris -- where terrorists struck twice this past year.

The French president himself appeared with some of the 11,000 soldiers on duty, a photo op designed to reassure both residents and visitors.

paris-new-years.jpg
French President Francois Hollande, right, and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve talk to a armed police officer as they visit security forces near the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, December 31, 2015. REUTERS
"We are not really scared about it," tourist Manuel Torres from Mexico told CBS News. "We want to enjoy it. We've never been here on New Year's Eve and it's magical."

But the magic was scaled back. There were no fireworks this year and the traditional party on the Champs Elysee will wrap up earlier than usual.

In Brussels, the official party was canceled as soldiers fanned out across the city. Workers dismantled the stage where the New Year's show was to go on after the arrest of two men suspected of planning holiday attacks.

Some think it was an overreaction, including local resident Ken Kinsella.

"I think it is backing down to the threat of terrorism," Kinsella said. "I think we should stand up and just make everything happen."

But Belgians are edgy.

This week, police arrested yet another suspect with links to the Paris attacks in Molenbeek, a Brussels suburb that was home to of the other attackers. One of them -- Salah Abdesalam -- is still on the loose.

Still, New Year's Eve is for celebration, according to Brussels club owner Pablo Saccomano

"I really believe that the people from Brussels need to go out party and need to gather, as well, and to bond together," Saccomano said.

It wasn't only Belgian police who uncovered evidence of a New Year's terrorist attack. The Turks arrested two men who they say planned to bomb a shopping mall and a crowded bar in the capital Ankara Thursday night.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-w...ack-in-munich/

Considering all the high alerts in many countries,none happened I'd say just part and parcel of the propaganda machine against Islam.

Real or hoax, the real terrorists win either way.

^
Absolutely. The goal of terrorism is to force the enemy to change their routine life like taking off your shoes at an airport and to have your entire body x-rayed for explosives. The closing of the train stations was a win, if it was actually caused by terrorists. If not, it is still a win for the terrorists.

Munich 'not under imminent IS threat' - German officials

1 January 2016
From the section Europe
German police at central railway station in Munich, 1 Jan 16Image copyrightEPA
Image caption
German police got a tip-off from French intelligence
German officials say there is no sign of any imminent terror attack, after an alert that shut down two Munich railway stations on New Year's Eve.
"The situation has eased a bit again," said Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann. Munich's main station and Pasing station reopened in the morning.
He said the temporary closure had been necessary because the intelligence service had got a "specific" warning.
That warning spoke of a threat from Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers.
Police say they are looking for "five to seven" suspects, believed to be Iraqis and Syrians.
But the state of alert now is "as it was before last night", Mr Herrmann told the Bavarian state broadcaster BR. He added that Europe was facing "a general, permanent terror threat".
Referring to the Munich scare, Mr Herrmann said the authorities "have nothing concrete about a place or time".
Names being checked
Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said his force had some names which were being checked on police databases, but had no details of the suspects' whereabouts.
He urged residents of the southern German city to "carry on living as you did previously".
A police spokeswoman said the tip-off about an IS plot had come from the French secret service.
Elizabeth Matzinger said the French "gave us the hint that there was a suicide bomb attack planned for Munich during the last night at about 12 o'clock".
Police outside Pasing station in Munich, Germany, on 1 January, 2016Image copyrightEPA
Image caption
German police were told of the threat as celebrations were in full swing

Media captionThe BBC's Gordon Corera: "Concerns for the year ahead will still remain"
Police reinforcements were deployed to Munich from other parts of Bavaria.
Mr Herrmann said the closure had been "the right decision, because I think we cannot run any risks when we have such specific threats".
New Year: Celebrations mark start of 2016
Cities across Europe were on alert for a possible New Year's Eve attack, after IS suicide bombers killed 130 people in co-ordinated attacks in Paris on 13 November.
France and Germany are involved in the international air campaign against IS fighters in Iraq and Syria.
Security concerns had already caused New Year celebrations to be cancelled or limited in other European cities.
The authorities in Brussels called off all official events after three people were detained on Thursday in connection with an alleged New Year's Eve plot.
Police officers check people as they enter the Grand Place in Brussels on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015Image copyrightAP
Image caption
Security in the centre of Brussels was tight
Revellers gather near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris during New Year celebrationsImage copyrightReuters
Image caption
Thousands joined celebrations on the Champs-Elysees
Armed police officer patrol with Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) in the background aheadImage copyrightAFP/Getty
Image caption
Extra armed police were patrolling in London
More than 100,000 police were deployed across France. In Paris, the traditional fireworks display was called off, but thousands of people partied on the Champs Elysees in the biggest public gathering since the November attacks.
Security was stepped up in other major European cities too, including Moscow, London and Berlin.
In Moscow, the fireworks were delayed by five minutes and, for the first time, the police closed Red Square - a traditional place for crowds to gather.
London's Metropolitan Police deployed 3,000 officers in the inner city, including extra armed officers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35209176