Islamist terror threat 'persistently high' in Germany, minister says

Germany faces a "persistently high" threat from Islamist terrorism, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday, in comments made just days after Taylor Swift's shows in Vienna were cancelled due to an alleged attack plot.

Faeser said security authorities in neighbouring Austria had confronted a "serious Islamist threat situation" when they thwarted a plan to attack Swift's shows last week.

"Our country is also the focus of jihadist organizations," Faeser said, singling out for mention the Islamic State group and one of its off-shoots, Islamic State - Khorasan Province (ISKP).

"Islamist terrorist organizations, but also individual Islamist perpetrators who often get radicalized largely on their own, are a danger that exists at all times," the minister said.

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