Attacks foiled in Germany, Turkey

Police yesterday found several hundred grams of "explosive materials" in the east German apartment of a Syrian man suspected of planning a bomb attack, and arrested three people connected to him.

The suspect who remains at large, 22-year-old Syrian Jaber Albakr, could have had "an Islamist motive" sources close to the police told AFP.

Police issued a search warrant for Albakr after officers received information from domestic intelligence services, a police spokesman said, saying he was born in Syria in January 1994.

Two of those arrested were seized close to the city's railway station while the other was taken into custody in the city centre. A package belonging to one of those arrested was undergoing analysis, police added.

Germany has been on edge after suffering two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) in July -- an axe rampage on a train in Wuerzburg that injured five and a suicide bombing in Ansbach that left 15 wounded.

The attacks in July rattled Germans' sense of security and fuelled concerns over the country's record influx of migrants and refugees last year.

German police said previously they had identified 523 people who posed a security threat to the country, around half of whom were known to be currently in Germany.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, two people suspected of planning a car bomb attack on the Turkish capital Ankara yesterday blew themselves up after being confronted by police, averting what the justice minister called a "huge disaster".

The incident comes two days before the first anniversary of Turkey's deadliest terror attack in its modern history in Ankara which left 103 dead.