25 suspected members of German far-right group arrested in raids, planning violent attack on parliament

Twenty-five suspected members and supporters of a far-right terrorist group were detained early on Wednesday during raids across Germany, said the federal prosecutor's office.

Raids were conducted across 11 German federal states, added the office in a statement.

The suspected arrested are part of a terrorist group whose goal is to overthrow the existing state order in Germany and replace it with their own, and do not exclude violence against the state as a means of achieving the goal, said the office.

Individuals belonging to the "Citizens of the Reich" (Reichsbuerger) movement are suspected of "having made concrete preparations to violently force their way into the German parliament with a small armed group", prosecutors said in a statement.

Suspects were arrested in the German states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Thuringia as well as in Austria and Italy, said the office.

The suspects are accused of preparing, since the end of November 2021 at the latest, to carry out actions based on their ideology, according to the office.