- The man is suspected of organizing the railway terrorist attacks in October and December 2018
- Notes in Arabic were left at both scenes
BERLIN: Austrian authorities have arrested an Iraqi man suspected of carrying out unsuccessful attacks on trains in Germany last year and sympathizing with the Daesh group.
Austrian and German officials said that the 42-year-old was arrested in Vienna on Monday. Vienna prosecutors said Wednesday that he is suspected of “carrying out terrorist attacks on railway lines in Germany in October and December 2018.”
In October, a high-speed train hit a steel cable stretched over the tracks between electrification masts on the Nuremberg-Munich line. A window in the driver’s cab was damaged but no one was injured. An Arabic-language note, which investigators described as threatening but unspecific, was found nearby.
At Christmas, police found damage to overhead wires in Berlin as well as a note in Arabic and an US flag.