German police placed a ring of steel around a Hamburg military hospital today after being tipped-off that al-Qaeda linked terrorists planned a car bomb attack.
Several streets around the complex were sealed off after UN intelligence warned police of the threat at earlier this afternoon.
Hamburg police said they had "concrete indications of people who want to carry out attacks by means of a car bomb" on the hospital in the suburb of Wandsbek.
Hamburg's top security official said "an American intelligence agency" was the source of the tip, which he said pointed to Ansar al-Islam, a group based in northern Iraq that US officials believe has links to al-Qaeda.
He added that US military installations in the Frankfurt area also had been threatened. However, spokesmen for Frankfurt police and for US Air Force Europe said they had received no notification of a terrorist threat.
State officials evaluated the threat as "very serious," the police statement said, immediately ordering enhanced security at the hospital. That will remain in place until further notice, police said.
A police spokesman said more than 100 officers were at the scene, among them explosives experts.
AP