NATO air base in Germany remains on high alert

The NATO air base in the German town of Geilenkirchen remained at high alert on Friday, a spokesperson said, after the security level was raised overnight "based on intelligence information indicating a potential threat."

"We are still at Charlie," a spokesperson for the base told Reuters, referring to the second-highest of four alert states.

Security level Charlie is defined as "an incident has occurred or intelligence has been received indicating that some form of terrorist action against NATO organizations or personnel is highly likely."

The spokesperson said the base housing NATO's fleet of AWACS surveillance planes was working with minimal staffing as a precautionary measure as operations continued as planned.

She added there was no connection to an incident last week when the security level at the base was briefly raised as a military base in nearby Cologne investigated a suspected sabotage of the water supply.

The same day, the base in Geilenkirchen also reported an attempted trespassing incident that prompted a full sweep of the premises.

Reuters