Suspect of Planned Chemnitz Attack 'Had Contacts with IS'

A police vehicle leaves the police headquarters in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, October 10, 2016. Fugitive terror-suspect Jaber al-Bakr was arrested in the night in Leipzig.

Syrian national Jaber al-Bakr, detained by German police over a planned attack in Chemnitz, had contacts with the Islamic State (IS) group, the prosecution says.

The suspect, arrested in the small hours of Monday, is named as Jaber al-Bakr, a Syrian refugee, and has been detained in an operation in Leipzig, 68 km away from Chemnitz.

Alongside information of the prosecuting authority, the man's behaviour also gives indications of an "IS context", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quotes the head of Saxony's investigative office, J?rg Michaelis, as saying.

According to investigators who raided his flat in Chemnitz on Saturday, several hundred grams of highly volatile explosives had been found that are though to have been similar to the ones used in Paris and Brussels, the BBC says.

Al-Bakr, 22, was found by police after midnight on Monday at the home of a Syrian compatriot.

Der Spiegel reports that the suspect talked to the man at the railway station, asking him whether he could offer accommodation for the night.

Some media reports have suggested the attack allegedly planned by Al-Bakr would have targeted the airport in Berlin, but this has not been confirmed.