ANSBACH, Germany (AP) – A failed asylum-seeker from Syria blew himself up and wounded 12 people after being turned away from an open-air music festival in southern Germany, authorities said Monday.
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Joachim Herrmann, the state’s interior minister, said on Monday an initial translation of an Arabic-language video found on the 27-year-old’s phone showed he had planned a “revenge” attack against Germany. The 21-year-old Syrian asylum seeker came to Germany one year ago, according to a police statement, and he was known to police for property thefts and assault. Officials said he had twice attempted suicide, and had also been detained for drug possession and other minor offenses. The explosion occurred as an outdoor music festival, attended by 2,500 people, was held nearby.
Three people were seriously hurt and another was injured. Following the explosion, which sent bits of metal flying outside of a music festival, there was panic on the streets.
The incident took place at around 4:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) near the main bus station in the center of Reutlingen, a southwestern city of some 100,000 near Stuttgart.
A spokeswoman for the Bavarian state police force said on Monday it was unclear whether the man was an Islamist militant, and that investigations were continuing.
According to Herrmann, the video confirms that the 27-year-old’s detonation of a bomb in the town’s centre had an Islamist motive behind it.
Germany’s vice-chancellor called for tightened gun laws following last Friday’s shooting spree in Munich in which an 18-year-old gunman who is believed to have purchased his firearm illegally on the internet killed nine people as well as himself.
Four days before, a Tunisian delivery man drove a large truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people.
Police said the attacker had been arrested and there was no indication that it was terrorist attack. Both were being treated for online game addiction, among other things.
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A total of 396,947 asylum applications were submitted in Germany in the first half of 2016, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
