Some 50 local residents of a neighbourhood in the eastern German city of Halle were asked to leave their homes on Saturday afternoon as police investigated whether a bomb was being built in a flat in the area.
The matter is still being investigated and specialists are on duty, a police spokesman said on enquiry.
As a danger to tenants could not be ruled out, more than 50 residents were evacuated from their homes, police Halle said on Saturday evening.
According to police reports, officers were informed by eyewitnesses at around 11:30 am (0930 GMT) that a 36-year-old man was making racist remarks and threatening passers-by with a gun from an apartment block in Schlosserstraße.
When the man's flat was checked, the weapon turned out to be a toy gun.
According to the police, the intoxicated suspect was detained.
The officers found several suspicious objects in the 36-year-old's flat, whereupon an explosives detection dog and forces from the State Office of Criminal Investigation were called in.
The police did not initially provide any additional details of what was found in the flat.
