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Gang robs cash truck with rocket launcher

Police are searching for men who witnesses say used an antitank rocket launcher to threaten and rob a truck transporting money in Dortmund on Saturday.

Gang robs cash truck with rocket launcher
File photo of a rocket launcher. Photo: DPA.

Police are searching for the four masked men that were involved in the robbery just before 7pm on Saturday evening.

The suspects reportedly blocked the armoured money truck with one car while a second vehicle came in behind to prevent the truck from reversing away, police reported on Monday.

Witnesses told police that the men threatened the truck with an antitank rocket launcher as well as automatic rifles and even shot at the car's bonnet, a Dortmund police spokeswoman told The Local.

“We are investigating whether it was a rocket launcher and cannot yet rule that out,” spokeswoman Cornelia Weigandt told The Local on Monday. “Witnesses said they saw a rocket launcher and we must look into whether that is true.”

The suspects even yelled at and threatened another passing car so that the driver would leave.

The thieves then used an angle grinder to open the truck's back door and steal the money inside. No one was injured, though the suspects also reportedly fired warning shots.

After the suspects fled the scene, police found their getaway cars abandoned, one with its engine still running and the other had been set on fire.

Both cars had been reported as stolen within the past year.

Police do not yet have much information on the suspects because they were all masked, but they are described as German-speakers.

Weigandt also told The Local that police are investigating whether there may be a connection to a similar case in Berlin last month.

A group of six masked, armed thieves tried to rob a money transport truck in a similar manner in the capital city, but when they could not open the truck's doors, they set one of their cars on fire and fled in the other. The second car was later found set on fire.

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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