BERLIN (AP) — Security has been heightened at a NATO air base in western Germany after intelligence indicated a “potential threat.” All personnel not essential to the missions have been sent home as a precaution, NATO said.
Geilenkirchen air base, near the Dutch border, is home to the alliance’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.
A post on the NATO AWACS fleet account on the social media network X late Thursday night announcing that “we have increased the security level” did not elaborate on the nature of the potential threat. It said that “operations are continuing as planned.”
German news agency dpa reported that a reporter saw police cars on the air base grounds. Police confirmed a deployment Thursday night but gave no details and provided no information Friday morning.
Last week, a large German air base near Cologne was closed for several hours amid fears that the water supply had been tampered with. An investigation found no evidence of such sabotage. There were also reports of suspicious observations in Geilenkirchen and one person was briefly detained for questioning near the base, dpa reported at the time, but nothing appeared to be wrong.
The incidents come amid concerns about the potential vulnerability of infrastructure to Russian sabotage attempts.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Flensburg, in Germany’s far north, said they were investigating suspicions of espionage aimed at sabotage, without elaborating on who might be behind it. German media reported that drones had been spotted over a chemical park in Brunsbüttel, on the North Sea coast.
