The Latest: Bavaria to hire more police in anti-terror plan

GERMANY OUT - Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, left, and Bavaria's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann arrive for a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet ,in Gmund, Germany, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. ( Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP) (The Associated Press)

prev next

Special police officers secure a street near the house where a Syrian man lived before the explosion in Ansbach, southern Germany, Monday, July 25, 2016. The man who blew himself up and injured a dozen of people after being turned away from an open-air music festival was a Syrian who had been denied asylum, Bavaria's top security official said early Monday. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader) (The Associated Press)

GERMANY OUT - Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer,right, and Bavaria's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann attend a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet ,in Gmund, Germany, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. In the most recent attack, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker set off a backpack laden with explosives and shrapnel Sunday night after being refused entry to a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people. ( Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP) (The Associated Press)

BERLIN – The Latest on a series of attacks in Germany (all times local):

11:15 a.m.

Bavarian officials have presented an anti-terror plan following four attacks in Germany in a week, two of which were claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Thursday that his state — where three of the four attacks took place — would hire 2,000 additional police officers until 2020, improve police equipment and create new offices to fight Muslim extremism and cybercrime.

He also called for tougher background checks on asylum-seekers and new strategies to deport criminal asylum-seekers more easily. Three of the four attacks were committed by asylum-seekers.

Bavarian Justice Minister Winfried Bausback said at a news conference with Herrmann: "The threat of Salafist terrorism has arrived in Europe, in Germany, but also in Bavaria."

___

9:30 a.m.

Germany's commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration is calling on mosques across the country to be more pro-active when it comes to preventing extremism among Muslim youths.

Aydan Ozoguz said in an interview Thursday with the daily Heilbronner Stimme: "We need to hold mosques more responsible when it comes to prevention among teenagers."

Ozoguz' call against Muslim extremism came after four violent attacks that shook the country recently.

Two of them were the first in Germany claimed by the extremist Islamic State group. The attackers were asylum-seekers who hadn't grown up in Germany.

On Wednesday night, police raided a mosque believed to be a "hot spot" for Islamic extremists in the city of Hildesheim. The raid didn't appear to be connected to the recent attacks.