ARD public television reported that the two youths arrested were well-known to the police for their links to the Salafist scene in the densely populated Rhine-Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia, something city police chief Frank Richter refused to confirm at the press conference.
We have to presume it was a terrorist act, religiously motivated terror by the Islamist scene, Richter said.
Officers received large numbers of tip-offs during their investigation that allowed them to identify the two 16-year-olds believed to behind the attack, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) reported .
"The accused have clear links to the terrorist scene," Essen police chief Frank Richter told journalists at a press conference, saying that both teenagers had made partial confessions.
Richter added that there was no evidence so far of a link to the Isis terrorist group, but said police expect to make further arrests in the coming days.
The strength of the Sikh community members in Germany is estimated at 15,000.
