3 detained suspects had 'fantasies' of carrying out attack in Germany

Three men have been detained in Germany on suspicion of plotting a crime that posed a threat to national security, with security sources telling dpa that they are suspected of having ideological links to the Islamic State terrorist group.

Special forces took a German man and two Syrians into custody on Thursday evening in the cities of Hagen and Unna.

The domestic intelligence service in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had been monitoring the men since the start of the year, the security sources said.

The suspects had been under increasingly close surveillance because they had become further radicalized, and between themselves exchanged plans for an attack.

As the plans became more concrete, intelligence services shared their information with the police, who planned a pre-emptive arrest, dpa learnt.

North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister, Herbert Reul, praised the services' cooperation on Friday, saying that the "security framework works when all the cogs mesh together."

The men had "lost themselves in fantasies of carrying out attacks and believed they were invisible," he said.