Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of Bavaria, said on Monday that video footage discovered on the suspect’s mobile phone showing him pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-declared leader of ISIL, also known as ISIS, makes it clear the incident was a “terrorist attack”.
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Bavarian security chief Joachim Herrmann said a video had been found on the 27-year-old’s phone in which he vowed to take vengeance against Germany. Police said the man meant to target the open-air festival but was turned away as he did not have a ticket, and detonated the device outside a nearby cafe.
An Iranian asylum-seeker who lived in the same shelter as the assailant, said he had occasionally drunk coffee with the man and they had discussed religion.
Three of the attacks were carried out by recent immigrants, rekindling concerns about Germany’s ability to cope with the estimated 1 million migrants registered entering the country previous year, an influx that has since dwindled as the flow of newcomers slowed.
And on Sunday, a 21-year-old male asylum seeker from Syria killed a woman and wounded two other people in the southern German city of Reutlingen.
And on Friday nine people were killed in a shooting near a shopping centre in Munich. Police raided the attacker’s home and uncovered gasoline and other chemicals that point to bomb-making, reports CBS News.
He said the man was to be deported to Bulgaria because he had submitted his first asylum request in the southeastern European country.
The suspect was known to the authorities and had repeatedly received psychiatric treatment, including for attempted suicide.
A week ago, a 17-year-old who had arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan or Afghanistan carried out a stabbing attack on a train in Wurzburg, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Ansbach.
Three of the 12 victims suffered serious injuries in the blast. German authorities have confirmed that the shooter, identified by police as Ali Sonboly, had studied mass shootings leading up to the attack, which occurred five years to the date from the Norway massacre.
The German interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, acknowledged possible links to global terrorism and IS but also added: “At the same time, we can not exclude a particular psychological or mental disorder or instability – or we may be talking about a combination of both factors”.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the July 18 ax attack in Germany.
Reuters quoted an unnamed intelligence source who said investigators would focus on “what the bomber was doing in Syria before leaving the country, why his asylum application was denied, and whether the attack had a personal or a political character”.
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German police spokesman Michael Schaal attributed the attack to “relationship troubles” and revealed that witnesses described the couple arguing prior to the incident.
