A 29-year old man from Tajikistan and his 31-year-old wife from Kyrgyzstan were arrested in Noord-Brabant on Thursday on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

According to information from Dutch security service AIVD, the man is suspected to be a member of terrorist organisation IS. His alleged plans for an attack were not at a concrete stage, the public prosecutor’s office said, but were considered serious enough to warrant an arrest.

German police also took part in the investigation because the couple were in contact with a group of terrorist suspects living in Germany.

Five Tajikistan nationals, a man from Turkmenistan and one from Kyrgyzstan were arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning “spectacular attacks in Germany in the spirit of IS”, the German prosecution office said.

The group had already selected objects for the attacks and were trying to obtain weapons, the prosecution office, which did not identify the objects had been targeted, said.

The group has been in contact for some time, and had travelled to Germany in 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The man who was arrested in Noord-Brabant is thought to be a member of this group.

The man couple will appear in court in Rotterdam on Thursday.