'Reason to believe' man arrested in Germany linked to Paris attackers: official

Police confirmed that 'many machine guns, revolvers and explosives' were found in the suspect's vehicle

BERLIN: Bavaria's state premier Horst Seehofer said Saturday that there was "reason to believe" that a man arrested last week with several weapons in southern Germany was linked to attackers who killed more than 128 people in Paris.

"There is reason to believe that this is possibly linked" to the attacks, Seehofer told a party conference.



Police had confirmed the arrest on November 5 during a routine check on a motorway, saying "many machine guns, revolvers and explosives" were found in the suspect's vehicle.

However, the police spokesman would not confirm the link with Friday's attacks in Paris.

"I cannot tell you what he was planning to do with the weapons," said the spokesman.

But for Seehofer, the arrest "shows how important it is for us to have some clarity on who is in our country and who is travelling through our country."



He reiterated his call for reinforced controls at Europe's external borders as well as at each European country's national border.

Alarmed by a record influx of asylum seekers in Germany, Seehofer has been pushing for a halt to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy for those fleeing war.

Focus Online reported that the arrested suspect was from Montenegro and that he has refused to speak in prison and not hired a lawyer to defend his case.



France was in a nationwide state of emergency after a night of horror in Paris when gunmen sprayed restaurants with bullets, massacred scores of concert-goers and launched suicide attacks near the national stadium.