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| In the run-up to the parades, there were concerns that satirical floats that poked fun at Islamist terror could provoke attacks |
Annual carnival parades that are among Europe’s biggest street parties went ahead in the German cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf on Monday, despite an Islamist terror threat that saw a similar parade in the city of Brunswick cancelled at the last minute.
Tight security was expected at the annual Rose Monday parades in Cologne and Düsseldorf, which each draw crowds of around a million people, and in nearby Mainz, which attracts around half a million.
A parade in the northern city of Brunswick on Sunday was cancelled just over an hour before it was due to start, after police said they received information about a “concrete threat of an Islamist attack”.
It emerged there was also a previously unreported high terror alert at Frankfurt airport on Sunday after police received a tip-off from an unnamed source who learned of an alleged planned attack in an internet chat, according to a report in Bild.
“Such a serious alert situation has only happened very, very rarely before,” Christian Altenhofen, a police spokesman, told the newspaper. » | Justin Huggler, Berlin | Monday, February 16, 2015
