German police on alert after Islamic State calls for carnival attacks

The Festival of Love planned in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in early March was listed as a target on the collage featuring a bloody knife and the hashtag #LetsSlaughter.

By REUTERS FEBRUARY 26, 2025 15:26

A fighter from the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), mans an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the rear of a vehicle in Mosul July 16, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS/STRINGER/FILE PHOTO)

Police are on high alert ahead of Germany's traditional carnival celebrations this week after social media connected to the Islamic State terrorist group called for attacks targeting revelers in Cologne and Nuremberg, said police spokespeople.

Bild newspaper reported that a German-language propaganda site run by IS had published a computer-created collage image calling on viewers to "choose your next attack target," and listed the dates and locations of upcoming carnival events.

The Festival of Love planned in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in early March was also listed as a target on the collage featuring a bloody knife and the hashtag #LetsSlaughter.

Attacks in Germany

Germany experienced a series of high-profile attacks, including a car-ramming and stabbings, with Islamist connections in the lead-up to national elections on February 23.

Candles, one of them with the message ''Our thoughts are with you'', sit at a makeshift memorial at the scene where a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a crowd, in what the Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder said was probably an attack, in Munich, Germany, February 13, 2025 (credit: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

The week-long carnival celebrations, which kick off on Thursday, take place in some predominantly Catholic southern and western parts of Germany, with revelers packing the streets to party, consume large quantities of alcohol and dance.

It is particularly popular in Rhineland cities such as Cologne and Duesseldorf, where festivities peak on "Rose Monday" next week with tens of thousands attending street parades featuring comical or satirical floats.

Cologne police said operational planning for the events was being adapted to take the threat into account, but they said the collage could be scaremongering aimed at unsettling the population rather than evidence of an imminent threat.

More than 1,400 officers will be stationed at known hotspots, emergency services will be out in full force and there will be bag and personal searches of carnival goers.

Carnival organizers in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, said on Wednesday that an event targeted on the IS-related website, the International Carnival Parade, had been canceled due to concerns expressed by the venue.

About 50 people had been expected at the event at the Saigon Bar in central Nuremberg, said organizer Global Locals.

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Nuremberg police said they were aware of the Islamic State threats, which were being evaluated by state security services.

They said there was no indication of a concrete plot for an imminent attack.