Germany shuts 9/11 'plotters' mosque in Hamburg

German police have shut down the Hamburg mosque where the 9/11 hijackers met before their suicide attacks on the US in 2001, according to BBC News.

Police said they believed the Taiba mosque was again being used as a meeting point for extremists. The cultural association that runs the mosque has also been banned.

A German intelligence report last year said radical Muslims had travelled to military training camps in Uzbekistan after associating at the mosque.

"We have closed the mosque because it was a recruiting and meeting point for Islamic radicals who wanted to participate in so-called jihad or holy war," said Frank Reschreiter, a spokesman for Hamburg's state interior ministry.

He said 20 police officers had been searching the building and had confiscated material, including several computers.

The mosque, formerly called the al-Quds Mosque, in Hamburg's St George district has been under surveillance since the 2001 attacks.

A recent intelligence report described the mosque as "a major hub for the jihadist scene in Hamburg," which it said included 45 radical Islamists.