Overview
- Police detained five men on Dec. 12 over an alleged plan to drive a vehicle into a Christmas market in the Dingolfing-Landau area of Bavaria.
- Four suspects are being held under formal arrest warrants and a fifth is in preventive custody after all were brought before a magistrate on Dec. 13.
- The accused are a 56-year-old Egyptian, a 37-year-old Syrian, and three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28, and 30, according to the Munich prosecutor's office.
- Officials have not disclosed the specific market, the planned timing, the arrest locations, or how far preparations had progressed, and they emphasized the presumption of innocence.
- Authorities credit close coordination among security services for the swift arrests as markets operate under heightened security after deadly vehicle attacks in Magdeburg in 2024 and Berlin in 2016.