BERLIN, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- German police blew up several hundred grams of explosives on Saturday morning when they raided an apartment where a Syrian man was reported to be planning a bombing attack.
The suspect was at large but police have detained three contacts and destroyed the explosives "well hidden" in the apartment in the eastern German city of Chemnitz, Saxony police spokesman Tom Bernhardt told reporters.
Bernhardt didn't elaborate the type of the explosives but said they were a "highly volatile mixture," therefore the police decided to explode them on site rather than moving them far away.
The targeted suspect is described as 22-year-old Jaber Albakr Syrian refugee from the Damascus area who arrived in Germany last year and was last seen as a dark-haired man wearing clothes that looked like a hooded sweatshirt.
He is assumed to have links with Islamic extremist groups. He was thought to have planned and prepared for an explosive attack at a German airport, and has been under police surveillance for a long time.
As the police were conducting the large-scale operation to hunt the suspect, residents in the city were ordered to stay indoors and people living in the raided building were evacuated.
"Tomorrow morning we will be there for you again. But you can be certain of this: the police operation is still running!" Saxony police posted on its twitter account at the end of Saturday.
Germany is on high alert of possible terrorist attacks. Three attacks in July left 10 people killed and scores of persons injured.
