PARIS
TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Candles are placed outside the French Embassy to form "Paris" in Berlin Saturday, a day after deadly attacks in Paris.
BERLIN—A 51-year-old man arrested in Germany
last week with weapons in his car may be linked to the Paris attacks,
the governor of Bavaria said Saturday.
A spokesman for Bavarian state police
confirmed earlier Saturday that firearms, explosives and hand grenades
were found when police stopped a man near the German-Austrian border on
Nov. 5. Ludwig Waldinger declined to confirm reports by public
broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk that the man appeared to be en route to
Paris when he was arrested.
Responding to questions about the Paris
attacks, Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer said: “In the course of spot
checks we had an arrest where there are reasonable grounds to assume
that there may be a link to the matter.”
He didn’t elaborate in his comments broadcast by Bayrischer Rundfunk.
Citing unidentified investigators, the station
reported that documents found during the arrest indicated that the man
was from Montenegro and was travelling to Paris. It also reported that
the weapons, which it said included an automatic rifle and one kilogram
of TNT, were professionally hidden inside the body of the car, a VW
Golf.
Rainer Wendt, chairman of the German Police
Union, said security agencies appeared to have been tipped off that the
man was planning to enter Germany.
“It seems it was found that he originally
wanted to go to Paris, heavily armed with several different firearms and
explosives,” Wendt told German news station n-tv.
“That the French authorities were informed
about this is totally clear,” he added. “From what we know the man is in
custody and isn’t saying anything, so with that information alone the
French authorities seem to have been unable to do much. At least the
attack couldn’t be prevented, despite all the efforts that were surely
made.”
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