Austrian authorities have arrested an Iraqi man suspected of carrying out unsuccessful attacks on trains in Germany last year and sympathizing with ISIS, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Austrian and German officials said that the 42-year-old was arrested in Vienna on Monday.
The Vienna prosecutors said that he is suspected of "carrying out terrorist attacks on railway lines in Germany in October and December 2018."
In October, a high-speed train hit a steel cable stretched over the tracks between electrification masts on the Nuremberg-Munich line. A window in the driver's cab was damaged but no one was injured. An Arabic-language note, which investigators described as threatening but unspecific, was found nearby.
In December, police found damage to overhead wires in Berlin as well as a note in Arabic and an ISIS flag.
Austrian and German authorities worked together in their investigations leading to Monday's arrest, according to a press release by criminal investigators in Germany's southern state of Bavaria.
Austrian media reported the father of five was working at a security company with access to football stadiums.
Germany is on alert following several militant attacks in recent years.
The most deadly was committed in 2016 by 23-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri, who killed 12 people when he stole a truck and ploughed it through a Berlin Christmas market.
