Suspicious package to Merkel’s office causes scare

BERLIN

German police briefly sealed off the Prime Ministry complex in Berlin Wednesday morning due to a suspicious package delivered by post, but bomb disposal experts later found no explosives.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and ministers did not cancel their weekly cabinet meeting at the building, while the police cordoned off the main entrance of the complex, due to the suspicious package detected in the plastic mail crates.

A police spokesman told German press agency DPA that the postal crates were examined by bomb disposal experts and no explosives were found.

The police removed the cordon around the Prime Ministry later in the morning.

German authorities have heightened security measures in recent weeks amid fears of possible terrorist attacks by Daesh.

Police in the southern German city of Munich issued a terror alert on New Year’s Eve and evacuated two train stations, after receiving intelligence of imminent suicide attacks planned by Daesh terrorists. The police later gave the all-clear but increased police presence at the train stations.