BERLIN, Sept 8: Police on Thursday detained two men suspected of obtaining ingredients for a bomb after foreign intelligence agencies tipped off German authorities to a potential threat, officials said.

The arrests came just a few days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, and follow a weekend statement by the interior minister that threats to Germany remained “real and intensive”.

Officers searched an Islamic centre in Berlin where the pair had spent time and also the apartments of the two suspects, a 24-year-old German of Lebanese descent and a 28-year-old from Gaza, police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said.

The men, who were not otherwise identified, were suspected of working together to plan “a violent criminal act”, and police had watched them for several months, Neuendorf said.

A high-ranking security official said that foreign intelligence agencies informed German authorities in late June that the pair posed a potential threat. He wouldn't elaborate.

“We were told by the foreign intelligence agencies that one of the suspects was trying to buy bomb-making material,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He also confirmed that investigators found the material in one of the suspects' apartments on Thursday.

“This plot… is in no way comparable to previous terror plots in Germany and the two do not seem to have links to any known terror groups,” he said, adding that the security level in Germany remained unchanged.

Unlike Britain or the United States, Germany does not have a state of alert, but maintains security through increased measures often not immediately visible to the public.

The Islamic centre that was searched is located in the heavily immigrant Wedding neighbourhood. Some 10 police vans were seen around a building in a formerly industrial area during the search.

A sign on the building reads “Ar-Rahman Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre for Religious Enlightenment”.

Rainer Wendt, the head of the German police union, said the case showed the authorities' vigilance. “The suspects caught the attention of the police at an early stage, when they bought the material to build a bomb, and the police was able to arrest them in due time,” he said. —AP