Packages at Merkel’s office ‘not dangerous’

BERLIN - Reuters

REUTERS photo

German police gave the all-clear after investigating five items delivered to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office in central Berlin yesterday. 

Officers had cordoned off the Chancellery as ministers gathered for a morning cabinet meeting inside. 

Germany and other European powers have been on particularly high alert since Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13. 

The cabinet meeting went ahead as planned and police started removing the cordon later in the morning yesterday. 

“The experts found nothing suspicious,” a spokesman for Germany’s Federal Police said. 

He said five items had been opened without saying whether they were packages or letters. 

Train stations shut down

Police shut down two train stations in Munich over New Year after receiving a tip that militants from Iraq and Syria were planning attacks. 

In 2010, police intercepted a package in Merkel’s mailroom at the chancellery which Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said contained explosives sent from Greece.