The man, who has not been named, killed himself and injured 12 others in an explosion in Ansbach on Sunday. The bomber, who has not been named, was killed.
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German police said a search at his house showed he had enough material to build another bomb, raising doubts about whether he had actually planned to blow himself up. Three have been carried out by asylum seekers. Although his application for asylum had been denied, he was not in danger of being deported immediately given the civil war in Syria.
Authorities investigating the axe rampage said the teen responsible was thought to be a “lone wolf” who was “inspired” by the Islamic State (IS) group without being a member of the network.
Efforts to disrupt plots could also be hobbled because of German legislation preventing agencies from eavesdropping on citizens in the same way as their counterparts in the United Kingdom and USA routinely do, Mr Pantucci says. “The obvious intent to kill more people, at least indicates an Islamist background”, he said, according to Germany’s DPA agency.
Questions over Germany’s refugee policies have started to swirl following a suicide bombing by an asylum seeker outside a music festival on Sunday, the country’s fourth attack in just over a week.
Roman Fertinger, the deputy police chief in Nuremberg, said there likely would have been more casualties if the man had not been turned away.
Bomb in rucksack carried by Syrian man goes off after he is refused entry to music festival in city of Ansbach.
IS claimed the attack shortly after Herrmann’s statement.
Police on Monday were searching a local refugee home, but a spokesman declined to say whether it was where the assailant had lived.
The suspect was known to the authorities and had repeatedly received psychiatric treatment, including for attempted suicide.
Security services have sealed off the city centre and experts are trying to establish the kind of explosives the bomber used. There are three military installations in the Ansbach area, according to the garrison’s website.
“Yes, this was also for me personally a very bad week, as I think it was for most of the people in Bavaria”.
ISIS took credit for the attack Monday morning. “And I do hope that I will not experience something like that so soon and fast”.
CNN reports that the suspect was a “a 27-year-old Syrian known to police who entered Germany two years ago”. Twelve people were wounded in the attack.
In Munich on Sunday evening, 1,500 people gathered at the scene of the shooting there, lighting candles and placing flowers in tribute to the victims of an 18-year-old German-Iranian. Authorities have not found a link to terror groups.
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Earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and injured two other people in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart. In the video, the attacker referred to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, spoke of “revenge” against Germany. “(People were) definitely panicking”.
