A 17-year-old teenager has been arrested in Frankfurt for allegedly planning to bomb a gay club. | Photo: Zum Schwejk
Police arrested a teenager in the Frankfurt area of Germany on the suspicion he planned to bomb a gay club and Catholic church.
A judge denied the 17-year-old bail after his arrest earlier this month. The judge kept the teenager in custody on suspicion he was planning ‘a serious act of violence’.
An anonymous source told The Associated Press that intelligence provided by United States authorities led to the teenager’s arrest.
Authorities have not revealed his identity, but intelligence showed he planned to attack a gay club and Catholic church.
Sinan Akdogan is the spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutors. He told The AP that the teenager had instruction on how to make explosives and was trying to buy chemicals online.
LGBTI community and terrorism
The teenager’s alleged plans were not the first attacks of terrorism aimed at the LGBTI community.
In 2016, a gunman killed 49 people at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. At the time was the worst mass shooting in US history.
Shane Sleeper a man who planned to attack gay bars saying ‘Orlando will come to Chicago’, was accidentally released from prison in May this year. He faced multiple charges, including state terrorism, hate crime and felony harassment. Police re-arrested him a few days after his accidental release.
A British court convicted neo-Nazi, Ethan Stables, of terrorism in February this year after he planned to attack people at a Pride event with a machete.
