German authorities have detained a man suspected of being a member of Islamic State who was linked to a threat to the opening game of the local football (soccer) championships.
Authorities in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate said they arrested the suspect Friday in Mutterstadt, but little information was available on the specifics of the reported threat. The man was reported to be an asylum-seeker from Syria.
The suspect was first reported to be a "high ranking" member of Islamic State, but later reports backed off from that assertion.
Germany has suffered two terror attacks by refugees on civilians in the past month. On a train in the town of Wuerzburg, an attacker was killed after wounding five people with an ax. In Ansbach, 15 people were injured after a suicide bomber detonated outside a music festival, killing only himself.
Authorities have anticipated a possible attack coordinated with the kickoff of Germany's top football league, the Bundesliga, on August 26.
