Worthy Christian News > Christian > Arrests And Security Around European Churches Amid Fears Of Christmas Attacks

Arrests And Security Around European Churches Amid Fears Of Christmas Attacks

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BRATISLAVA/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Arrests were made, and security was stepped up around churches and Christmas markets in Europe, including in Germany and neighboring Austria, after intelligence information of possible attacks, officials said.

The European Union’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned ahead of the celebration of Jesus birth that Europe faces a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas holidays.

These threats have been linked to the fallout from the war between Israel and Hamas, seen as an Islamist terrorist organization by Israel and most of its allies.

In Austria, the domestic intelligence service detained four people over the weekend as part of a probe into an Islamist network ahead of a possible attack on a church in Vienna and the cathedral in the German city of Cologne, added Austria’s Ministry of Interior.

German media newspaper reported on the Austrian arrests, as well as one in Germany.

Sightseeing visits were barred at Germany’s landmark cathedral in Cologne, and Christmas Eve worshippers faced security checks to get into midnight Mass there Sunday as police responded to indications of a potential attack.

Churchgoers attended multiple services at the cathedral despite the ban on visits purely for sightseeing, a day after police descended on the cathedral and searched it with sniffer dogs.

‘MOST SECURE SERVICE’

With several dozen officers on duty outside, Auxiliary Bishop Rolf Steinhaeuser greeted those attending, liking that it was “probably the most secure church service in all of Germany.”

Cologne’s towering cathedral, whose twin spires rise 157 meters (515 feet) high, is a significant tourist destination visited by some 6 million people a year. It is home to the Shrine of the Three Kings, a gold- and silver-decorated casket that contains the relics of the three wise men described in the New Testament as paying homage to the newborn Jesus.

In Austria, police said they also were stepping up security around Vienna’s churches and Christmas markets, apparently responding to the same intelligence about a potential threat.

They did not give further information, but the media reported that the threat was from an Islamic extremist group. Police in Cologne said they were taking precautions over Christmas even though the information they had was for an attack on New Year’s Eve.

Separately, police elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe were on high alert, with Slovakia saying they detained a man who had threatened to carry out a massacre similar to Thursday’s mass shooting in Prague, the Czech capital.

They say a 64-year-old was held in the northern city of Zilina after he called emergency services claiming he intended to do “what happened in Prague,” where a young gunman killed 14 at Charles University.

He now faces prosecution for spreading general alarm, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

MORE THREATS

Another man was arrested after threatening to kill the surviving members of the gunman’s family, police said, adding they recovered a legally-held weapon at his home in the Vysocina region southeast of Prague.

On Friday night, officers were called to a village in the western Plzen region after a man threatened to shoot his neighbors. He was arrested but found to be drunk and unarmed.

There have been several more security incidents amid a general sense of public unease since the killings and threats of terror this Christmas.

An armed response unit was sent to Prague’s busy IP Pavlova intersection on Friday evening after reports of a man holding a grenade. Though experts called to the scene said the weapon was an imitation, two men – described by the media as foreigners – were arrested.

Tram and road traffic was temporarily halted, and metro trains did not stop at the station until police gave the all-clear. Also, late Saturday, Prague Airport’s Terminal 2 was briefly evacuated after an “English-speaking man” called police to say there were five bombs planted at the airport, officials confirmed.

Flights were reportedly unaffected, and the terminal was reopened after being swept for explosives.

Most Czechs celebrate Christmas in the aftermath of what was the worst mass shooting in their nation’s history. Czech President Petr Pavel urged him to think of those who had lost loved ones. “Let us respect their pain and not leave them to suffer it alone,” he said in a Christmas statement. “Our solidarity, help, but also tact and consideration will give them the strength to gradually cope with this situation.”