May 31 (UPI) — German police on Tuesday detained a teenager they suspect of planning a terrorist attack in Berlin.
Police apprehended the 17-year-old boy in the Uckermark district northeast of Berlin, according to a statement from law enforcement in the German state of Brandenburg.
He had told his family he was becoming a jihadist and sent them a goodbye message, officials said.
Police say the boy, whom they did not name, migrated to Germany illegally in 2015 before registering as an asylum seeker. The Telegraph reported the boy came from Syria, but Brandenburg police tweeted Tuesday they could not initially confirm his nationality.
He has lived in a home for unaccompanied child refugees in Uckermark since 2016, police said. Officials were searching the home Tuesday.
Twelve people were killed in a Berlin terrorist attack last December, when police say a Tunisian man drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market. The man was killed days later during a shootout with police in Milan, Italy.
