Germans nix possible Boston-style terrorist plot

German authorities have seized a cache of weapons, including a pipe bomb and chemicals that can be used to make explosives, foiling what they believe might have been a Boston Marathon-style attack on a professional cycling race planned for Friday.

The materials were seized in a raid on a suspected Islamic extremist’s home outside Frankfurt, and authorities detained a 35-year-old Turkish-German man and his 34-year-old Turkish wife. In keeping with German privacy laws, the names of the couple, who had been under surveillance, were not released.

Suspicions were raised when authorities observed the male suspect, a chemist, seeming to scout out the area where the one-day Eschborn to Frankfurt race was to take place. The event, which draws around 200 professional riders and thousands of spectators, was expected to be canceled in case the couple had accomplices, The Associated Press reports.

Read more from The Associated Press.