Threat To Munich Terror

Germany: Munich Stations Reopen As Police Hunt For 'Terror Plot' Suspects - Trains are no longer running. Heavily armed officers stood on almost every corner as others with rifles and binoculars surveyed the crowd from rooftops above. They reopened a little after 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT/UTC), allowing trains to depart according to schedule.

"The alert, the police operations on the scale we saw last night, have been lifted", Andrä told reporters. Days after the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, police in Hannover, Germany, evacuated a soccer stadium before a match between Germany and the Netherlands due to the threat of terroism.

154-a-16-(Sajjan Gohel (SAH'-zhahn GOH'-hehl), director for worldwide security, Asia Pacific Foundation, in AP interview)-"number of occasions"-Security analyst Sajjan Gohel says the terror threat in Munich comes as no surprise".

"The names that were given to us are being checked, the extent to which these people are in Germany and what German intelligence officials know about these people is part of the ongoing, intense investigation", Hermann told the Bavarian public television station BR on Friday.

"We can't rule out that these people exist, but we can't confirm it either".

"I believe this decision [to evacuate the stations] was right because I think we can not take unnecessary risks when we are dealing with such concrete threats, concrete locations, and a concrete time", he added.

He said German authorities were tipped off by a "friendly intelligence service" - thought to be France - about an apparent attack, which would have been carried out around midnight.

Munich police received the federal government's support.

"The situation in Europe and Germany continues to be serious in the new year", de Maiziere said in a written statement.

In New York on Thursday, police were taking extraordinary measures to ensure security for the traditional New Year's Eve dropping of the crystal ball in Times Square, where more than a million people were expected. French and United States intelligence agencies are said to have named seven Iraqis living in Munich as the potential attackers.

The central Hauptbahnhof station and western Pasing station were shut down and special police units with automatic weapons were sent to guard the entrances.

The Guardian was not able to verify the reports independently.

German media reported Friday morning that Munich police said an unspecified Islamic extremist group is suspected to be behind the plans, which were to attack multiple targets in Munich.