Activists nabbed as they try to damage private jet of Germany's Merz
German police have arrested three people at an aircraft hangar housing Chancellor Friedrich Merz's private plane in western Germany, authorities said on Thursday.
Two women and one man aged 23, 28 and 56 are believed to have been looking to damage the plane, prosecutors in Merz's home town of Arnsberg said.
They were arrested for trespassing after gaining unauthorized access to the Arnsberg-Menden airfield overnight.
Merz, who took office last May, is an avid pilot and is based in Arnsberg, some 400 kilometres south-west of Berlin.
Police officers became suspicious when a driver asked for directions to an airfield in the area. He was later identified as a known left-wing activist and police turned their attention to the airfield housing Merz's plane, leading to the arrest of the three German nationals.
Among the the three people arrested was 28-year-old German climate activist Anja Windl, who is a leading figure in Austria's climate movement, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Arnsberg said.
Windl and the two other suspects have come to the attention of authorities with a number of protest actions in the past, the spokeswoman said.
All three suspects did not comment on the accusations when questioned by police, she added. They have since been released and investigations have been launched against them.
A group called Resistance Collective has claimed responsibility for the attempted plot, saying it had "attempted to ground Friedrich Merz's private jet as part of a protest action."
The group said the activists had planned to daub the plane with pink paint to ground it long-term.
"We are acting in self-defence," Windl is quoted as saying in the statement, noting that while the climate crisis is escalating, Merz is flying around in his own plane.
Windl has been arrested in Austria several times for participating in sit-ins and similar protest actions, according to local authorities.
In January 2025, she protested against the start of coalition negotiations between the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
The FPÖ came in first in Austria's 2024 elections, but coalition talks with the ÖVP led nowhere, and the conservative party later entered into a coalition with the liberal NEOS and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ).
At the time, Windl smeared the words "You smell like brown shit" on the wall of the ÖVP party headquarters, a reference to the colour associated with Germany's Nazi Party.
In response, Austrian authorities issued a two-year entry ban, which is yet to become legally binding, however.