A ‘nail bomb’ package that sparked a mass evacuation at a Christmas market near Berlin was part of a ‘blackmail plot’ to extort millions from a delivery company.
The object was delivered to a pharmacy in the same street as the market in Potsdam, 17 miles outside the German capital.
It contained ‘a cylindrical object with cables, batteries and nails’ but was not viable as a bomb as it lacked an ignition mechanism, said police.
The object was destroyed later in a controlled explosion.
A suspected ‘nail bomb’ package was delivered to a pharmacy on the same street as this market in Potsdam, Germany
Police dealt with the bomb in a controlled explosion after evacuating the area on Friday
The package also contained a letter directing investigators to an online message outlining a blackmail plot and mentioning the parcel delivered to the Frankfurt an der Oder company, said Brandenburg state interior minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter.
It is unlikely that the market itself was a target, said Mr Schroeter.
Officials declined to say if they had any clues to the identity of the sender who is still at large.
Further attempts to extort money from other companies or private individuals are likely, said Mr Schroeter.
Inside the package investigators found a letter outlining a blackmail plot, police confirmed (pictured, officers at the scene on Friday)
A police van is parked outside the market, while a cordon remains in place on Friday night
An unknown sender, spelling mistakes or wires hanging out of a package could all be indications of a letter bomb, he said, adding that police had activated a hotline to deal with public concerns.
‘If you get a suspicious package, do not open it. That could lead to an explosion,’ Mr Schroeter said.
Germans are still tense almost a year after 12 people were killed in a terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.
Markets across the country have heightened security this year, while the government has warned that Germany remains a target for extremists.