MUNICH, GERMANY - JANUARY 01: Riot police armed with machine guns controls the street in front of Pasing railway station on January 1, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to Joachim Herrmann, Bavarian Secretary of the Interior, there was intelligence for an IS terror attack planned for new Year's eve in in at least two Munich railway stations. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
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Munich suicide attack threat came from multiple sources
01:48 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

The plot involved five to seven potential suicide attackers

The tip about the plot came from another country's intelligence agency

Police asked residents to avoid large public crowds

CNN  — 

Police in Germany said Friday a New Year’s Eve terror alert that closed two busy Munich train stations was prompted by the threat of suicide attacks linked to ISIS.

It was not immediately clear exactly how the alert was linked to the terror group.

Threats were made against the central Hauptbahnhof station and the Pasing station west of the city, Police Chief Hubertus Andrae said.

The stations were evacuated on Thursday evening and service stopped for around eight hours.

Authorities told the public additional officers were being called in to find possible suspects. On Friday, 100 additional officers were still on duty, Andrae said.

The information police received referenced five to seven possible attackers and included personal information for some of them. Those details included names and referred to both Syrian and Iraqi nationals, the chief said.

Initial police checks of the information turned up nothing, and no one has been detained, Andrea said.

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Another country’s intelligence agency reported the plot and the ISIS connection to German federal police, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told journalists. Andrae would not confirm reports that the intelligence that sparked the alert came from U.S. and French intelligence.

Early Friday, police allowed both train stations to reopen, they announced in a tweet.

Hermann said there were no concrete indications that a terror attack could take place in Munich in the coming days. “Right now the threat level is the same as it has been … since the Paris attacks,’ he said.

“We all know there is a danger of attacks in all of Europe and also in Germany and here in Bavaria. But we have no specific evidence as to imminent attacks today or tomorrow in any specific places,” he added.

Europe has been on edge since the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed at least 130 people. Recent weeks have brought arrests of suspected terrorists in Belgium, France, Austria and other nations.

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CNN’s Stefan Simons and Lindsay Isaac contributed to this report.