Europe Mans Up police arrest over 2 dozen in anti-terror sweeps
Jan 16, 11:32 AM (ET)
By RAF CASERT and ANGELA CHARLTON
BRUSSELS (AP) — French, German and Belgian police arrested more than two dozen suspects in anti-terrorism raids Friday, as European authorities rushed to thwart more attacks by people with links to Mideast Islamic extremists.
Rob Wainwright, head of the police agency Europol, told The Associated Press that foiling terror attacks has become “extremely difficult” because Europe’s 2,500-5,000 radicalized Muslim extremists have little command structures and are increasingly sophisticated.
Highlighting those fears, a bomb scare forced Paris to evacuate its busy Gare de l’Est train station during Friday morning rush hour. No bomb was found. A man also briefly took two hostages at a post office northwest of Paris, but police said the hostage-taker had mental issues and no links to terror.
Visiting the tense French capital, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met President Francois Hollande and toured the sites of last week’s terror attacks: the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. Twenty people, including the three gunmen, were killed.
https://apnews.myway.com/article/20150116/eu–europe_terror-8e8b966bdb.html