'Tik Tok Terrorists' prompt concerns in Europe about new wave of attacks

Three recent lone-wolf strikes in Germany show difficulty of tracking such individuals

- Jonathan Eyal

Germany has reimposed controls at all its borders in a bid to prevent illegal immigration and reduce terrorist threats.

Although formal border checks between most European Union member states were abolished over two decades ago, Germany reintroduced controls in 2023 at its eastern and southern borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Austria.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has announced that the measures will be extended to all border points, starting on Sept 16, for at least six months. This means patrols will be added to Germany's borders with Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Berlin, Ms Faeser said, is determined to "take a hard line" against irregular migration, claiming that the checks would "reduce Islamist extremism" and "cross-border crime".

"We are doing everything in our power to protect the people of our country against these threats," she added.

The measure is a gesture in response to a widespread backlash against increased illegal migration, which has boosted votes for the hard-right Alternative for Germany party in the recent regional polls.

But on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept 11 terror attacks in the US, officials throughout Europe are expressing heightened concern about the danger of a new wave of terrorist strikes on the continent, perpetrated by single individuals who are much harder to apprehend.

Germany faced three such attacks in the last few months.

In June, a 25-year-old Afghan attacked a police officer, who later died, and a well-known critic of Islam in the German city of Mannheim.

In August, a 26-year-old Syrianasylum seeker stabbed people in the city of Solingen, killing three and seriously wounding a further eight civilians.