German police raid properties in search of email bomb threat senders

German authorities searched properties across four states as they investigated a case concerning hundreds of emails threatening bomb attacks against schools, train stations and other public spaces.

The raids in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the northern state of Lower Saxony, and the central states of Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse, targeted four individuals, including two juveniles, police and prosecutors said.

The suspects are accused of “being responsible for hundreds of threatening emails with fake nationwide bomb threats against schools, central railway stations, shopping centers and other urban and public facilities.”

According to federal prosecutors, the aim of the emails was to “disturb the public peace by threatening to commit criminal offenses… to trigger the greatest possible number of police operations and to create the greatest possible uncertainty among the population.”

Read more: Deutsche Welle