GERMAN police arrested 25 alleged far-right activists during an early morning raid today on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the state.

The suspects are accused of preparing to procure equipment and recruit new members to help them to carry out actions.

According to the authorities, the recruitment efforts were aimed at members of the military and police.

According to German military counterintelligence service Bamad, the 25 arrested suspects include one serving member of the military’s Special Forces Command and a number of reservists.

They were arrested in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Thuringia as well as in towns in Austria and Italy, the authorities reported.

Bamad said it had worked with the prosecutors on their investigation with the domestic intelligence service and federal criminal investigators in advance of the raids.

In November, Italian police arrested five neonazis with links to Ukraine’s far-right Azov Battalion.

In October last year, police in Rome arrested 12 people, including two leaders of the far-right Forza Nuova, during a demonstration which also saw an attack on the headquarters of Italy’s largest union federation CGIL.