German | Police apprehend Syrian bomb plot suspect

German police have arrested a Syrian man in the eastern city of Leipzig that they suspect of planning a bomb attack.

Authorities said on Twitter on Monday they captured the man, previously identified as Jaber Albakr, after he went on the run on Saturday.

Police were looking for the 22-year-old suspect after finding several hundred grammes of explosives in an apartment they raided on Saturday in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Albakr, who had been in Germany since last year, was officially recognised as a refugee, Tom Berhardt, a spokesman for the Saxony state criminal investigation office told Reuters news agency.

The suspicion that a refugee was planning a bomb attack will prove unwelcome news for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose conservatives have lost support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party over her open-door migrants policy.

Merkel, who last month said she wished she could “turn back the time by many, many years” to better prepare for last year’s influx of almost one million people, has yet to say whether she will seek a fourth term as chancellor in elections next year.