A 32-year-old Iranian man was arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a “Islamist-motivated” attack.
North Rhine-Westphalia police said in a statement that the man was planning to commit a “serious act of violence” with cyanide and ricin.
They raided the man’s Castrop-Rauxel home in the Ruhr region, but no poison was discovered, according to prosecutors.
The suspect’s brother was also apprehended, and both remain in custody.
While no poison was discovered, police did seize electronic devices from the residence.
According to a senior public prosecutor in Düsseldorf, the tip about the man came from a friendly foreign intelligence service.
“After reviewing the information, we decided to issue a search warrant and execute it as soon as possible,” Holger Heming told reporters.
The Deutsche Presse Agence (dpa) in Germany reported numerous emergency workers in protective suits on the scene.
The investigation is ongoing, and it was unclear how far the attack plans had progressed at first.
Mr. Heming refused to speculate on the possible target of the suspected attack, saying that police would decide whether to issue an official arrest warrant at a later date.
The charge of “serious act of violence endangering the state” carries a prison sentence of six months to ten years.
In recent years, Germany has been the target of numerous Islamist attacks. In 2016, a truck attack on Berlin’s Christmas markets killed 12 people and injured dozens more.