Investigators from North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony managed to locate the telephone caller who announced an attack on the Christmas market in Düsseldorf on December 5th.
Pure burger
Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.
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As a spokesman for the General Prosecutor's Office in Celle told the FAZ, a 15-year-old German-Turkish youth from the Osnabrück area is a suspect.
It is still being checked whether he was also behind the telephone threats against a school in Münster and a luxury shop in Cologne on December 5th.
All three calls had been made from the same – albeit technically modified – phone number.
Suspect previously noticed by violent crimes
After "meticulous investigations" by the state security police in Düsseldorf, the youth's apartment was searched on December 30.
In addition to special forces from Lower Saxony, detectives from Düsseldorf were also involved in the action.
From security circles it was said that the young person had already been noticed in the past for violent crimes, but not for state security crimes.
So far, no indications of an Islamist background to the threatening calls have been found.
As a precaution, the police in Düsseldorf cleared the entire Christmas market after the threatening phone call and closed the surrounding streets.
The dealers suffered a significant drop in sales.
Oliver Wilmering, chairman of the Düsseldorf Showmen's Association, told the Rheinische Post newspaper that ultimately the damage was not only caused by the cancellation of the market on December 5th.
"Many potential visitors must have hesitated in the days that followed because they were unsure and wanted to wait and see."
The Criminal Code provides for a fine or up to three years in prison for adults for “disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit a crime”.
Should the German-Turkish suspect be convicted, however, juvenile criminal law would have to be applied to him, in which the focus is not on punishment but on the idea of education.