German train bombs 'likely were terrorist attack'

A surveillance camera in a railway station in Berlin. Picture / Reuters

BERLIN - An investigation launched after two bombs were found in the German cities of Dortmund and Koblenz late last month is increasingly pointing to a terrorist link, a German newspaper has reported.

The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung quoted unidentified "high-level security experts" as saying there was a "strong probability" that the bombs, hidden in luggage found on trains at the cities' stations, were part of a terrorist plot.

Police had also identified a man in video surveillance footage who left behind at least one of the suitcases but had no information about his background or activities, the paper reported in a preview of its Friday edition.

German federal prosecutors said earlier this month that they were investigating possible terrorist links to the plot.

Citing unidentified security sources, the Sueddeutsche said evidence had come to light that another suspect was involved and that the two devices were meant to be exploded simultaneously.

"Their power was so great that they would have created explosions of the size of the subway attacks in London in the summer of 2005," the paper quoted an unidentified high-ranking official responsible for security as saying.

British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in July last year when they detonated bombs on London trains and a bus.

- REUTERS