Police in the eastern German city of Chemnitz have launched a manhunt for a suspect believed to be planning a bomb attack.

Acting on a tip-off from the domestic intelligence service, they raided an apartment but failed to find the man.

Traces of explosives were found at the property, a police spokesman said. Local residents have been warned to stay indoors as officers comb the area.

The suspect has been named as Jaber Alkadr, 22, who was born in Syria.

The “where, when, how and why” of the planned attack remained unknown according to Tom Bernhardt, a spokesman for the Saxony state criminal investigation office.

Saxony police have released pictures of the Damascus-born suspect wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt with a colourful print.

They have not provided any information about how long he had been in Germany.

They have urged anyone with information about him to come forward.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s popularity has waned since her decision to open the borders to refugees and migrants last year, admitting more than a million people, many of them Syrian.

In July, an axe attack on a train near Wuerzburg and a suicide bombing in Ansbach wounded 20 people and were claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS).