German intel head warns against threat of attacks
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The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency is warning that Europe needs to remain vigilant against the threat of extremist attacks.
Hans-Georg Maassen told reporters in Berlin Thursday his agency has 548 extremists considered potentially dangerous enough to carry out an attack under surveillance.
He says: "We have to assume that there will be more attacks in Europe and that means also more in Germany."
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Though Tunisian Anis Amri had been under surveillance, he was able to hijack a truck in December and drive it into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others — the first mass-casualty Islamic extremist attack in Germany.
Maassen says overall some 9,700 people in Germany are part of the radical Islamic Salafist scene, but not all are violent.