COLOGNE, Germany - German police commandos boarded a plane at Cologne airport just before it took off for Amsterdam and arrested two terrorist suspects Friday morning, police said.
A 23-year-old Somali man and a 24-year-old German man born in Somalia were arrested before the KLM flight left the airport, a spokeswoman for North Rhine-Westphalia state police said.
Police spokeswoman Katharina Breuer told The Associated Press that officers boarded the plane at 6:55 a.m. and arrested the men without incident. She said authorities do not suspect the men planned to abduct the flight.
Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper, citing police sources, said the two had been under observation for months and a suicide note was found in their apartment saying that they wanted to die for the "jihad" or "holy war."
Breuer would not disclose how authorities knew that the men would be on board and she declined to comment further.
A KLM spokeswoman told NOS news in the Netherlands that police boarded the Fokker 50 jet when it was at its "point of departure" and grabbed the two suspects. She said all other passengers aboard KLM Flight 1804 were forced to leave the plane.
"Then a 'baggage parade' took place to see if the two passengers who were taken by the police had bags with them," the spokeswoman said.
She said the plane took off after an hour delay and landed at Schipol airport in the Netherlands without further incident.
Earlier this month, the Dutch government's anti-terror chief warned that the country remains one of the top targets for Islamic terrorist groups because of publicity surrounding a legislator's anti-Islam film.
The National Coordinator for Combating Terrorism said in a report the film "Fitna" by lawmaker Geert Wilders has made the country a "preferred target."
Fitna set Koranic texts against a background of violent images. The agency said it "is considered a major insult and provocation" by terrorist groups.
The terrorist threat has been rated as "substantial" since the run-up to the film's launch in March.
