Attack threat at German mall
Police have ordered a shopping mall in the western German city of Essen not to open after receiving credible tips of an imminent attack.
The shopping centre and car park stayed closed on Saturday as about a hundred police officers - many armed with machine pistols and bullet-proof vests - surrounded the site to prevent anyone entering.
Several officers scoured the interior to bring out early morning cleaning staff.
"As police, we are the security authority here and have decided to close the mall," police spokesman Christoph Wickhorst said, adding that they had been tipped off late on Friday by other security agencies.
He declined to provide further details, but Essen police said later that they were questioning a man and had searched his apartment in nearby Oberhausen.
The downtown mall at Limbecker Platz square will be closed for the entire day.
The mall is one of the biggest in Germany with more than 200 stores and attracts up to 60,000 people on a regular Saturday, according to the shopping centre's website.
In 2016, three people were injured in an attack on a Sikh temple in Essen by radicalised German-born Muslim teenagers.
