4 held for extremist threat to attack synagogue in Germany

German police have detained four suspects after what authorities described as an extremist threat to attack a synagogue in the western city of Hagen, reported dpa.

A 16-year-old was among those arrested, local police wrote on Twitter. Searches for more evidence, including at his residence, were under way.

North Rhine Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul said that "there was the risk of an attack on the synagogue in Hagen," which was "likely prevented" by police.

"Police action prevented any concrete danger," the Hagen police said in a press release.

The apparent threat on Wednesday evening came on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews, and led to the cordoning off of the areas around the synagogue and the cancellation of services there.

Terrorism authorities are also involved in the investigation, prosecutors in Dusseldorf said.

The large police operation in Hagen on Wednesday evening followed a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency on suspicions that someone was planning to carry out an attack, security sources told dpa.

On Yom Kippur two years ago, an armed right-wing extremist in Halle in the state of Saxony-Anhalt tried to force his way into a synagogue there. When the door held, he shot dead two people nearby and injured two others as he fled.

The 28-year-old man who confessed to carrying out the Halle attack was convicted last year and given a life sentence by a German court.

During the trial, the accused expressed anti-Semitic and racist views and outlined an anti-feminist conspiracy theory.