German police commandos seized two terrorist suspects Friday from a Dutch airliner just before it was due to leave Cologne for Amsterdam, media reports said.

Police said a 23-year-old Somali national and a 24-year-old German citizen born in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, were overpowered on the KLM flight 1804 at 6:55 am (0455 GMT) local time.

A KLM spokeswoman said police boarded the plane when it was at its "point of departure," and seized the two suspects. She said everyone was then forced to disembark and there was a baggage inspection to see who the bags belonged to.

Police said "farewell" letters had been found from the men that led them to suspect they were intending to carry out terror attacks. It was not revealed where the letters were found or how long the two suspects had been under observation.

Some reports said the two had been under observation for months, and a suicide note was found in their apartment saying that they wanted to die for the "jihad" or "Muslim holy war".

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