Germany bombing: Syrian man kills himself, injures 12, in Ansbach explosion
A Syrian man killed himself and injured 12 people after a “deliberate explosion” outside a music festival in the German town of Ansbach.
Authorities said the 27-year-old had been denied asylum a year ago and had a history of making attempts on his own life.
It is believed a device he was carrying exploded although it is not clear whether it was a suicide bombing or whether the man intended to plant it and harm others.
At a media conference in the early hours of Monday the Bavarian interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said the man had attempted to gain entrance to the Ansbach open music festival.
More than 2,000 people had been in the festival crowd in the small town of 40,000 people southwest of Nuremberg that is also home to a US Army base.
Herrmann said the man was carrying a backpack at the time of the blast, at about 10pm on Sunday, but was turned away at the entrance to the festival.
The backpack contained metal items used in “wood manufacturing” and could have killed many more people, he said.
Hermann did not specify whether these items were nails or screws but he said that because of the contents a terrorist motivation for the incident could not be ruled out.
However, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Ansbach said the attacker’s motive was not clear.
“If there is an Islamist link or not is purely speculation at this point,” said the spokesman, Michael Schrotberger.
Hermann said the man’s request for asylum was rejected a year ago, but he was allowed to remain in Germany on account of the situation in Syria.
At least 12 people are reported to have been injured in the blast – three of those are believed to be in a serious condition.
Shortly after the explosion, the mayor of Ansbach, a town near Nuremberg in Bavaria, said the blast had been caused deliberately.
A police spokesman said: “An explosion went off in the city centre and a man, which the latest enquiries show caused it, was killed in the event.”
After the explosion the entire area was evacuated and the music festival cancelled.
Thomas Debinski, who was interviewed by Sky News, described a “disturbing” scene as people in the small city came to realise a violent act had taken place.
“People were definitely panicking, the rumour we were hearing immediately was that there had been a gas explosion,” he said.
“But then people came past and said it was a rucksack that had exploded. Someone blew themselves up. After what just happened in Munich it’s very disturbing to think what can happen so close to you in such a small town.”
Police blocked off the town centre and emergency services were on the scene. Bomb experts were sent to determine the cause of the explosion.
The explosion, which followed the killing on Friday of nine people by an 18-year-old gunman in Munich, occurred at a wine bar called Eugene’s, the Nürnberger Nachrichten newspaper reported.
Police had said earlier the explosion might have been caused by a gas leak.
But a spokesman for the Bavarian interior ministry later said the explosion was not an accident and appeared to have been intentional.
“The explosion was set off deliberately,” said Michael Siefener, a spokesman for the regional interior ministry.
Germany, Bavaria in particular, has been on edge after a deadly rampage at a Munich shopping mall on Friday in which nine people were killed, and an axe attack on a train near Wuerzburg last Monday in which five people were wounded.
Both came shortly after a Tunisian man in a truck killed 84 people when he ploughed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, on the French Riviera.
Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reported that about 200 police officers and 350 rescue personnel were brought in following the explosion in Ansbach.
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