A suspected spy from Turkey's intelligence agency who was detained in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday is thought to have planned the killing of two high-ranking Kurds in Europe, the German tabloid "Bild" reported on its website.

The report on Sunday said men traveled from Turkey to Germany at the end of November to carry out the assassinations - one in Bremen, the other in Brussels.

Planning role

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe (above photo) said that the 31-year-old suspect was believed to have gathered information about the whereabouts of individuals, contact persons and political activities. He is thought to have also spied on Kurdish institutions.

Ankara has been embroiled in a conflict with the Kurdish minority in Turkey for more than 30 years, with the situation escalating since summer 2015.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is banned not only in Turkey but in Germany as well, is fighting for an autonomous region in the southeast of the country. The Turkish government has cracked down hard not just on Kurdish militants, but also the pro-Kurdish opposition.