4 arrested for plotting to attack Muslims, asylum seekers

Reports say 4 people suspected of plotting to attack Muslims and asylum seekers have been arrested by German police.

According to BBC, prosecutors said that 3 men and 1 woman were accused of founding a far-right group and procuring explosives.

Also,  a previously unknown group, the "Old Schools Society", had been planning to attack mosques and hostels for asylum seekers.

The quartet were arrested in raids across 5 German states involving some 250 investigators.

According to a statement from the prosecutor's office "pyrotechnics with large explosive power and further pieces of evidence were confiscated" in the raid.

The searches were conducted in Bavaria, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and prosecutors say they are still trying to determine whether the group had concrete targets or dates for attacks.

Reports say the suspects are to be brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court on Thursday.

German media reports that the suspected head of the group was from the Bavarian city of Augsburg, while the group's 39-year-old vice president was believed to be from the eastern state of Saxony.

Asylum seekers have become a common target for extremist attacks, and Germany has received over 200,000 applications from asylum seekers in 2014 alone, with the government expecting the figure to rise as high as 400,000 this year.