Police in Hamburg Search for Three Possible Terrorists

More than 1,000 police officers were deployed Thursday to search for three suspected terrorists, a police spokesman said.

Roadblocks and controls were set up at 12 points in this northern port city after an Arabic-speaking witness overheard the men praising Allah and heroism Wednesday at a bus stop. One was carrying a backpack.

Police said the three men had been recorded by video surveillance cameras and their pictures would be released.

“We don’t know at this point whether there is something to the tip or not,” Hamburg state Interior Minister Udo Nagel said at a news conference. There were no concrete clues about any attack, he said.

The witness told police he heard one of the men use the phrase “heroism before Allah.” The men then boarded a bus.

A police official said the launch of the search and release of information was delayed a day because the police did not want to jeopardize their initial criminal investigation.

Hamburg, which has been on terrorism alert several times in the last four years, was the home of a group of radical Arab students led by Mohamed Atta, who piloted one of the hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.