Germany faces a “persistently high” threat from Islamist terrorism, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.

Ms Faeser made the remarks days after Taylor Swift’s shows in Vienna were cancelled due to an alleged attack plot.

She said security authorities in neighbouring Austria had confronted a “serious Islamist threat situation” when they thwarted a plan to attack Ms Swift’s shows in the past week.

“Our country is also the focus of jihadist organisations,” Ms Faeser said, mentioning the Islamic State group and one of its offshoots, Islamic State – Khorasan Province.

“Islamist terrorist organisations and also individual Islamist perpetrators who often get radicalised largely on their own are a danger that exists at all times,” the minister said.

Mr Faeser spoke after visiting the Cologne headquarters of Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency. 

(dpa/NAN)