Police hunted alleged terrorist Jaber Albakr for days, before he was caught by a group of Syrian refugees in the city of Leipzig.
Germany faced a terror alert last week after police failed to capture Syrian-born Albakr following the discovery of 1.5kg of explosives in his flat in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday.
After evading police, the suspect, who is believd to have links to ISIS, made his way to Leipzig and approached a fellow Syrian to ask for a place to say at the train station.
Despite knowing his identity, the man took Albakr back to his apartment in the north-eastern area of the city.
The man attempted to contact police and inform them of Albakr whereabouts, but when he was unable to get them to understand his limited German, he and his two flatmates overpowered and restrained Albakr.
Once they had tied up the suspect, one of the flatmates took a photo of him with his mobile phone and took it to the police station to show officers they had captured the target of the manhunt.
Anti-terror officers arrived at the flat on Sunday and took the suspect into custody, hailing the three Syrian men as “heroes”.
Another Syrian man, a neighbour of the three heroes, said he was proud but not surprised by their brave actions. He told German newspaper DW:
“Ninety-nine percent of Syrians in Germany are good people and would fight against terrorists for Germany any time. There is an Arabic saying: If you offer me your house, I will offer you my blood. The Germans have helped us – in a hundred years we won’t forget that.”
