Two small tents are pitched in front of the entrance to the famous Cologne Cathedral. In them, the police search those who come to mass, as if they were entering a stadium. There are around a dozen police vehicles.
The Gothic cathedral, one of the symbols of Germany, is usually visited by a hundred thousand tourists between Christmas and New Year. But now it is closed to tourists - you can only go to mass or confession.
It has been so since a foreign service tipped off its German colleagues that the Islamists are preparing terrorist attacks across Europe, and that right on New Year's Eve. Apart from the place of worship in Cologne, the St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna and a church in Madrid are reportedly also potential targets.
Tajik man in custody
Concretely, little is known. On the second day of Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, a 30-year-old Tajik man was detained in Wezel, a town north of the Ruhr region.
According to the Bild tabloid, that Tajik man previously visited and "spyed" on the cathedral. Recordings were also found in his phone. It is interesting that the same man allegedly visited St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.
The same man was arrested and released a few days earlier in the Sarka region, after which he changed his location. For now, the police are keeping him in custody as a preventive measure, without concrete evidence. The court allowed him to be detained until January 7.
"We are using all legal options to protect the people, the cathedral and the upcoming welcome celebrations," said the head of Cologne's criminal police, Michael Esser.
However, the police did not want to disclose more details about the arrested person or about the alleged terrorist plans in order not to jeopardize the investigation.
Three people were also detained in Austria earlier in connection with the alleged planned series of attacks.
The strongest branch of the Islamic State
The plans are said to be linked to the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, which operates largely in present-day Afghanistan and has between one thousand and four thousand fighters.
Khorasan is the historical eastern region of ancient Persia, which includes parts of present-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.
The Afghan part is a meeting place of Islamists from that country, but also from Pakistan and the Caucasus. For them, the Taliban are too soft and allegedly in dealings with the West.
Radical Islamists are therefore waging an open war against the Taliban. In the previous two years, since the Taliban rule in Kabul, the Islamic State of Khorasan carried out dozens of terrorist attacks with hundreds of deaths.
"It is probably the only branch of the Islamic State that is currently capable of carrying out a major coordinated attack in the West," says German terrorism expert Peter Neumann.
In Germany this year, raids have been carried out several times against alleged members or sympathizers of the Islamic State of Khorasan. In November, two young men were arrested in Leverkusen who were allegedly planning an attack on the Christmas market there, and then going to Afghanistan.
Believers are not afraid
Across Europe, the level of alarm has increased over the holiday, also due to fears that various Islamist groups could carry out retaliation for Israel's war in Gaza.
In Germany, memories of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin's Breitscheidplatz in 2016 are still fresh. Then Tunisian Anis Amri ran over visitors with a tow truck, killing 13 and injuring 67 people.
The terrorist, who allegedly acted in collusion with the Islamic State, managed to escape and was killed only a few days later in Milan.
Politicians in Germany have called on citizens to remain calm and not allow terrorists to intimidate them. As they say from the Cologne Cathedral, there are more people at Mass this year than last year.
