With Germany shooting

Authorities to raise police presence

Berlin, February 21

The German authorities will step up the police presence throughout the country and keep a closer watch on mosques and other sites after the racially motivated shootings that killed nine people, the country’s top security official said Friday. The suspect, identified as Tobias Rathjen, left a number of rambling texts and videos espousing racist views and claiming to have been under surveillance since birth. Meanwhile, officials confirmed they had received a letter from the suspect last November in which he sought help from authorities in stopping the surveillance he believed he was under. The letter didn’t ring any alarm bells with prosecutors, authorities said.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said state-level security officials and security agencies he consulted Thursday agreed to increase the law enforcement presence around the country. Seehofer said there would be more surveillance at “sensitive sites,” including mosques, and a high police presence at railway stations, airports and borders. “The threat posed by far-right extremism, anti-Semitism and racism is very high in Germany,” Seehofer told reporters in Berlin. — AP