German police have searched a dozen homes across the country as part of an investigation into a far-right extremist group suspected of planning armed attacks against police, Jews and asylum seekers.

The early morning raids targeted people associated with the "Reichsbuerger", or Citizens of the Reich, movement, which rejects the modern German state, claiming it is an illegitimate successor to Nazi-era Germany.

Two of seven suspects were detained and weapons, munitions and explosives were found during the raids, the chief federal prosecutor's office said.

A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said the raids underlined the government's determination to crack down on ultra-right extremists, whose numbers are rising across Germany.

"This is an important signal against the far-right extremist scene in Germany which shows that our investigative agencies are vigilant and will proceed with great resolve against extremists," he said.


The raids involving around 200 officers included searches of the homes of six people believed to have founded the new group, and that of a seventh individual suspected of helping the group get supplies.

They took place in Berlin and the states of Baden-Wuerttemerg, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Sachsen-Anhalt.

"The goal of today's search measures was to obtain further evidence of the actual creation of a formal group, as well as the alleged planned criminal acts and any potential tools," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The suspects were largely connected via social media and were believed to have started planning attacks in the spring of 2016, the office said.

Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency put the group under observation in November, weeks after one of its members shot dead a policeman during a raid at his home.

The agency warned last year that ultra-right extremists were increasingly ready to commit acts of violence in the wake of the arrival of more than a million migrants into Germany.

It also called for action in order to stop the emergence of what it called "right-wing terrorist structures".

The number of far-right extremists deemed to be at risk of carrying out violent acts rose from 11,800 in 2015 to 12,100 in 2016, according to an interior ministry spokeswoman.

German authorities broke up a suspected ultra-right militant group known as "Oldschool Society" last year.