The world famous glass dome atop the Berlin Reichstag has been closed to all visitors as fears mount of an impending terrorist attack in the capital. German parliament closed the dome, designed by Lord Foster, which thousands of tourists usually visit daily for unparalleled views of the city on Monday
The 116-year-old Reichstag building houses Germany’s parliament and is now thought to be the number one target for a commando squad plotting a Mumbai-style massacre. Last week the interior minister announced 'concrete indications' of a terror plot about to come to fruition. Security spiked at all major airports and railway stations across Germany.
Police believe at least two members of a jihadi hit squad are in Berlin.
Al Qaeda and associated Islamist groups are planning to take hostages and fire at people in the Reichstag, said news magazine Der Spiegel, citing intelligence sources.
News of the plot reportedly came from a jihadist who contacted the German authorities.
Thousands of Britons are in the capital on any given day on cheap breaks and business trips. Numerous holy warriors raised in Germany have been filtering back into the country in recent months following spells in training camps in Pakistan.
Spiegel reported that the informant who triggered the Berlin scare repeatedly telephoned police from a foreign location in recent days, asking the authorities to help him return to his family in Germany.
He said the terrorist cell consisted of six people, of whom two had arrived in Berlin weeks ago. Four other militants - including a German, a Turk and a northern African - were still waiting to travel to Germany.
The attacks were seemingly planned for February or March 2011, and modelled on the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, in which 175 people died when Islamist militants attacked a series of high- profile hotels, a train station and Jewish centre. Now it appears they have been brought forward.
The FBI in America alerted German recently that a Shi'ite Indian group called Saif (Sword), had aligned itself with Al Quaeda and two of their men were due to travel from the United Arab Emirates to Germany in coming days.
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