Anti-terror police carry out 13 raids across Germany as cops swoop to foil ‘imminent threat’

ANTI-terrorist police in Germany have swooped in five states in raids directed against suspected Chechen asylum seekers linked to Isis.

Thirteen properties in Germany were searched and at least one arrest made. A number of computers, notebooks and other material relating to Jihadism were seized.

Media described the raids as a response to an "imminent terror threat."

Operatives of elite police anti-terrorism units, the SEK, were scrambled across states, including Thuringia, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Bavaria.

Explosive sniffer dogs were deployed in the town of Suhl where a non-descript apartment block was among the addresses searched.

The arrested man there was taken into custody after "white powder" was discovered in his home.

It is not immediately clear what the substance is.

A 28-year-old suspect described as a “Russian national of Chechen descent” with links to Isis was the main target of the hunt to prevent what authorities described "a serious act of violence" in the planning.

Other suspects are 10 men and three women, all with alleged Islamist backgrounds and either Chechens or with links to Chechnya.

They are said to live in the state of Thuringia and the cities of Hamburg and Dortmund.