(MENAFN- Gulf Times) German police are investigating a possible explosive containing nails close to a Christmas market in Potsdam, reviving fears of a repeat of last year's terror attack that struck at the height of the festive season.
The device was uncovered in a package found at a pharmacy just off the Christmas market in central Potsdam, a picturesque city near Berlin.
The Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten newspaper said the pharmacy alerted police after receiving a package measuring 40cm (16) by 50cm (20) that contained suspicious wires and electronics.
The Potsdam newspaper said police were alerted around 2.30pm (1330 GMT).
Investigators initially said in a tweet that 'suspicions of an unconventional explosive device have been confirmed.
But Brandenburg interior minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter later said that a probe was still ongoing to determine 'whether the device was actually capable of causing an explosion or not.
'There were apparently not only nails but also powder in the canister, and that must be investigated, could it be plaster, or something that doesn't explode or is it something explosive, he said, adding that 'binding results were unlikely to come today.
After clearing parts of the city centre and Christmas market, bomb disposal units defused the device shortly before 6pm (1700 GMT).
Schroeter said officers were combing the area to check if other similar packages had been deposited.
'We are now carrying out searches because the package was delivered, apparently, and possibly other packages had been delivered nearby the Christmas market. That's why we are only at the beginning of our job, he said.
What is clear is that the scare, coming on the eve of the first Advent weekend, has sparked fear, said Schroeter.
'We can see that it's not possible to hold a proper Christmas celebration, he said.
Christmas market organiser Peter Klemm told broadcaster NTV: 'It's not easy when you're on the scene, we're shocked. But the people here understand what's going on and take the measures very seriously.
Germany has been on high alert for possible religious extremist attacks after last December's deadly assault at a Christmas market in central Berlin.
The attacker, Tunisian asylum-seeker Anis Amri, hijacked a truck and murdered its Polish driver before killing another 11 people and wounding dozens more by ploughing the heavy vehicle through the festive market in the centre of the city.
He was shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later while on the run.
Germany has since been targeted a number of times in attacks with radical Islamist motives.
In July 2017, a 26-year-old Palestinian asylum-seeker wielding a knife stormed into a supermarket in the northern port city of Hamburg, killing one person and wounding six others before being detained by passers-by.
German prosecutors said the man likely had a 'radical religious motive.
And at the end of October, German police arrested a 19-year-old Syrian identified only as Yamen A, suspected of planning a 'serious bomb attack using powerful explosives.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in 2016, including the murder of a teenager in Hamburg, a suicide bombing in the southern city of Ansbach that wounded 15, and an axe attack on a train in Bavaria that left five injured.
Cement blocks have been erected at Christmas markets across the nation among a slew of extra security measures for the markets, which form part of the festive build-up in Germany and where people gather to sample traditional fare.
Germany has around 2,600 such markets.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said this week Germany had increased information-sharing between federal and state officials and taken other steps to increase security after a series of missteps in the Berlin case.
A ministry spokesman said this week the risk of an attack in Europe and Germany is 'continuously high.
Meanwhile, thousands attended the opening ceremony yesterday evening of Germany's biggest Christmas market in the southern city of Nuremberg.
The Bavarian city expects 2mn visitors to come to the Nuremberg market over the holiday season, with 20,000 expected last night alone.
Bavarian police are testing out new mobile vehicle blockades at the markets in Munich and Nuremberg this year, which involve mounting iron columns in the ground to prevent a repeat of last year's attack in Berlin.
A working group within the riot police unit has also tested different systems for making public events safer, including the iron barriers.
Police are now examining how easy the barriers and other measures are to transport and store.
Nuremberg's Christmas market is one of Germany's oldest, mentioned in historical texts as early as 1628, and serves as a model for other Christmas markets across the world, including in the US city of Chicago.
Germany remains a target for religious extremist groups, in particular because of its involvement in the coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, and its deployment in Afghanistan since 2001.
German troops in the anti-IS coalition do not participate in combat operations but support it through reconnaissance, refuelling and training.
Germany's security services estimate there are 10,000 religious radicals in Germany, some 1,600 of whom are suspected of being capable of violence.
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