Details are still sparse, but an attempt to bomb a German plane packed with 300 passengers has failed.
It was first reported that a bomb had been found inside a plane bound for Munich with 300 passengers aboard. However, the report was later amended to a "suitcase with a fuse in the luggage hall of the airport" in the former German colony of Namibia, in southwestern Africa. Batteries were attached by wires to a fuse and a clock, but it was not clear whether explosives were present. Authorities are investigating whether the device could have exploded.
The 300 passengers were aboard the plane when the bomb was discovered. They were suddenly ordered off the plane, leading to panic among many.
Just yesterday, German security went on high alert after intelligence was received of one or more planned attacks by an al-Qaeda cell. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported that that U.S. intelligence agencies had provided reports that up to four would-be suicide bombers were about to arrive in the country.
In July 2006, Islamic terrorists placed homemade bombs in suitcases on two regional trains at the main station in the German city of Cologne. The bombs did not go off, and in fact no Moslem terror attack has ever succeeded on German soil.