Hamburg cultural centre raided on terror concern

HAMBURG, May 9 (Reuters) Federal prosecutors and police raided a cultural centre in the northern German city of Hamburg today because of concerns it was being used by a domestic left-wing radical group, the prosecutor's office said.

''There is a terrorist background to the search,'' Petra Kneuer, a spokeswoman in the prosecutor's office said, declining to elaborate further.

German security officials have stepped up their vigilance in the run-up to a Group of Eight (G8) summit next month in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.

Reuters television footage of the scene showed a big sign reading ''Stop the G8'' plastered on the leftist ''Rote Flora'' cultural centre, which was cordoned off by police.

Hamburg, where a group of radical Arab students plotted the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, is the nearest major German city to Heiligendamm.

Germany has not experienced any major left-wing violence since the militant Red Army Faction (RAF), which waged a bloody two-decade long campaign of killings and kidnappings, announced in 1998 that it was disbanding.

REUTERS GL VV1533