Terror Attack Plot: German police hunt Syrian after explosives found

German police stepped up security at airports and train stations yesterday as they pressed a nationwide manhunt for a Syrian man suspected of plotting a bomb attack.

The suspect, Jaber Albakr, 22, has been on the run since police commandos stormed his flat on Saturday and found explosives which a bomb disposal squad later detonated in a controlled blast.

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Police said the man, pictured wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, was "suspected of preparing a bomb attack", adding yesterday that they were following more than 80 possible leads.

Albakr may have "an Islamist motive", police sources told AFP. German news agency DPA, citing security sources, said he was believed to have links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

In a posting on Twitter, police warned the public to be vigilant.

"The search for the suspect is under way. We do not know where he is and what he's carrying with him. Be careful."

A day after arresting three of Albakr's associates, police said one of them remained in custody, suspected of complicity, while the other two were released.

"Terror fear grips all of Germany," ran a headline on the website of Bild newspaper.

Police said "several hundred grams" of an "explosive substance even more dangerous than TNT" were found in the apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz, about 260 kilometres (160 miles) south of Berlin.

"Even a small quantity of this substance could have caused enormous damage," police said.

Local media reported the substance was TATP, the homemade explosive known as "mother of Satan" that was used by jihadists in the Paris and Brussels attacks.

A spokesman for Germany's domestic intelligence agency told AFP that Albakr, who was thought to have arrived last year as a refugee, had been under surveillance for some time.

News site Focus Online said he was suspected of planning an attack on an airport.

Investigators raised the alarm on Friday, sparking Saturday's raid in a neighbourhood of Chemnitz whose communist-era housing estates are home to many recently-arrived refugees.

Heavily-armed police commandos, wearing helmets and balaclavas, evacuated over 100 residents, then blew open the flat's door.

The explosives found in the flat were destroyed in specially-dug holes on land nearby.

Part of Chemnitz's main station was sealed off on Saturday as police used a remote-controlled robot to inspect a suspect package, which turned out to be harmless.