Also Sunday, a 27-year-old Syrian who was denied asylum detonated a backpack of explosives and shrapnel at the entrance to an outdoor music festival in Ansbach, killing himself and wounding 15 people.
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The Ansbach attacker, who was identified only as Mohammad D in accordance with German privacy laws, was a rejected asylum seeker in Germany who was due to be deported to Bulgaria, where he already had been granted asylum, authorities said.
The blast killed the suspect and injured 15 others, four of them seriously.
Bavaria police said security at three-day Ansbach Open music festival, around 90 miles north of Munich, noticed a young man acting suspiciously in the area at around 9.45pm. Bavarian state officials said Monday that they found a video on the suicide bomber’s cellphone in which he pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Top security officials in Germany called Tuesday for tougher security screening of asylum-seekers and also announced that more police officers will be hired following four attacks in the country two of them claimed by the extremist Islamic State group. Ansbach is located inside the German state of Bavaria. There have always been complaints Germany is too slow to deport rejected asylum seekers.
Asylum-seekers are routinely deported to the first country where they registered if they don’t follow proper procedures, even if they’re considered to have a legitimate asylum claim.
Police said Monday the teenager was arrested late Sunday and investigators were able to retrieve a deleted chat between him and the attacker on the messaging app WhatsApp. In the video, the attacker referred to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, spoke of “revenge” against Germany.
Police said the woman was 45 years old and from Poland.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the Syrian man’s removal had been suspended temporarily because of his “psychological instability”. Police said there were no indications pointing to terrorism and the attacker and the woman worked together in the same restaurant.
The incident also came just two days after a deadly shooting attack at a shopping mall in the German city of Munich, killing 9 people and injuring dozens more.
Germany has largely avoided large-scale terror attacks on its soil, in contrast with the assaults that killed hundreds in Paris, Brussels and Nice over the a year ago.
The 27-year-old had meant to target a music festival in the city of Ansbach, but was turned away because he did not have a ticket.
The wave of violence has fueled criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming stance toward immigrants, with the hashtag #Merkelsommer, or “Merkel summer”, circulating on social media.
Authorities on Monday morning raided the asylum shelter where he lived in the suburbs of Ansbach and searched his room.
More than a million refugees have entered Germany in the past year, many of them braving the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean Sea in search of better lives in Germany and other European countries.
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“The Syrian in Ansbach was facing deportation and this was to Bulgaria”, he said. State police said on Saturday the shooter was neither a refugee nor known to have terror links, but had been receiving psychiatric treatment.
