Police in Cologne, Germany, said on Saturday night that they were searching the city’s cathedral with bomb dogs after a warning of “danger” ahead of New Year’s Eve.
Those visiting the cathedral on Christmas Eve will have to pass a security check on the way in.
“Although the warning concerns New Year’s Eve, starting this evening we are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of visitors to the cathedral on Christmas Eve,” Cologne Police Chief Michael Esser said in a statement.
The German newspaper Bild writes that authorities in Austria, Germany and Spain have received indications that an extremist Islamist group plans to carry out several attacks in Europe, possibly during Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The newspaper further writes that possible targets for the attacks could be Christmas fairs in Cologne, Vienna and Madrid, and that several people were arrested on Saturday in Vienna and in Germany.