HAMBURG, Dec 30: German police said on Tuesday they had closed off a military hospital in Hamburg after indications that militants planned a car bomb attack on the facility.

A police spokesman said authorities had firm information that individuals linked to militants had planned the attack, prompting officers to cordon off streets around the hospital and search parked cars.

“We took the information from security services very seriously,” he said.

The incident comes a month after police arrested a suspected Algerian militant in Hamburg as part of a Europe-wide investigation into a network that investigators said was involved in recruiting Islamists for suicide attacks in Iraq.

Germany has been especially vigilant for signs of extremism in its 3.2 million-strong Muslim population since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Three of the 19 suicide hijackers had lived and studied for years in the northern city of Hamburg.—Reuters