Germany police are on maximum warning before the country’s traditional carnival celebrations this week after social media linked to the Islamic State Militant Group (IS) summoned attacks against the revelers in Colonia and Nuremberg, police spokesmen.
The Bild newspaper reported that a German -speaking advertising site managed by EI published a computer -created collage image asking viewers to “choose their next attack target” and listed the dates and places of the next carnival events.
The Love Festival, planned for early March in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, was also listed as a target on the collage that had a bloody knife and the hashtag #letsslaugter (let’s massacrar, in literal translation).
Germany has suffered a series of serious attacks, including running over and stabbing, with Islamic connections during the period before the national elections of 23 February.
The celebrations of the carnival, which last a week and start on Thursday (27), occur in some predominantly Catholic regions of the southern and western Germany, with the revelers filling the streets to celebrate, consume large amounts of alcohol and dance.
It is particularly popular in Cities of Rhine, such as Colony and Duesseldorf, where festivities reach the peak on “Pink Monday” next week, with tens of thousands of people participating in street parades with comic or satirical allegorical cars.
Cologne police said that event operational planning is being adapted to take into account the threat, but said the collage could be an alarmism with the aim of disturbing the population and not evidence of an imminent threat.
More than 1,400 police officers will be positioned at known access points, emergency services will be in full force and there will be personal magazines and carnival attendees’ scholarships.
Carnival organizers in the city of Nuremberg, Bavaria, said on Wednesday that an event that was targeted by the EI-related site, the International Carnival Parade, was canceled due to express concerns.
About 50 people were expected at the Saigon Bar event in downtown Nuremberg, the local global organizer said.
Nuremberg police said they are aware of Islamic State threats, which are being evaluated by state security services.
They said there was no indication of a concrete plan for an imminent attack.
This content was originally published in German police is on alert after Islamic State summoning attacks at Carnival on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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