Germany bomb plot suspect commits suicide in jail

A Syrian man arrested on suspicion of planning a bomb attack on a Berlin airport was found dead in his cell on Wednesday after committing suicide, media reports said.

“On the evening of October 12, 2016, Jaber al-Bakr, who was suspected of planning a serious attack, took his life in the detention centre at Leipzig correctional hospital," according to the German Justice Ministry.

Al-Bakr, 22, was arrested on Monday after a two-day manhunt following the police discovering explosives in his apartment.

He had narrowly evaded police commandos on Saturday morning, but was arrested some 48 hours later, thanks to three Syrian refugees who recognised him, tied him up and handed him to police.

Germany's domestic security service had alerted police last Friday that al-Bakr may have been plotting a bomb attack, and police investigators have since said he was thought to have had links with the Islamic State (IS) group.

Early last Saturday, police closed in on his communist-era flat in the eastern city of Chemnitz, but he managed to slip away, sparking a weekend-long nationwide manhunt.

Police then discovered in his flat 1.5 kilos (more than three pounds) of TATP, a homemade explosive used by IS militants in the Paris and Brussels attacks.

Investigators said the explosives were "almost ready or even ready for use," and that he was apparently preparing a "bomb, possibly in the form of a suicide vest".

On the run, al-Bakr contacted the three Syrians, who put him up in their apartment in Leipzig. When they realised he was a wanted terror suspect, they turned him in to police.

Al-Bakr had offered them money to let him go, they later said.

The Bild daily described the trio as "the Syrian heroes from Leipzig," while calls have grown to honour and reward them.

German news agency DPA said al-Bakr had told the police the three Syrians had been complicit in his attack plans, but it was unclear whether police took that claim seriously.