Police in Germany have arrested ten Islamic extremists on suspicion of planning a terror attack.

The arrests were made after some two-hundred police officers carried out raids in the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.

The men had plotted to kill as many 'non-believers' as possible using a vehicle and guns, prosecutors said.

A 21-year-old man from Offenbach, near Frankfurt, and two 31-year-old brothers from Wiesbaden are the main suspects.

'They had already made contact with different arms dealers, rented a large vehicle and collected financial assets to use for the purchase of guns and the execution of the planned murders,' a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.

The suspects are aged between 20 and 42 and several are German nationals, the spokeswoman added.