Berlin: A 27-year-old Syrian man denied asylum in Germany a year ago died on Sunday when he set off a bomb outside a crowded music festival in Bavaria, the fourth violent attack in Germany in less than a week, a senior Bavarian state official said.
Police said 12 people were wounded, including three seriously, in the attack in Ansbach, a small town of 40,000 people south-west of Nuremberg that is also home to a US Army base.
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Explosion near Nuremberg
A man was killed and 10 injured when an explosion went off next to an open-air music festival in Ansbach, Germany, leading to the evacuation of over 2000 people in nearby Nuremberg.
The incident will add to growing public unease surrounding Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy, under which more than a million migrants have entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing wars in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters at a hastily convened news conference on Monday that it was unclear if the man had planned to commit suicide or "take others with him into death"..
![Fire trucks and ambulances stand in the city center of Ansbach.](/web/20160726051500im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/c/y/q/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqcvdb.png/1469429636418.jpg)
The man was carrying a backpack filled with explosives and metal parts that would have been sufficient to kill more people, Mr Herrmann said. He said he the possibility of it being an Islamist-inspired attack, would have to be confirmed by an investigation.
According to AP and German news agency DPA, Mr Herrman also said he believes the man was driven by religious extremism.
"My personal view is that I unfortunately think it's very likely this really was an extremist suicide attack," he was reported as saying.
Mr Herrmann told a press conference said the Syrian man arrived in Germany two years ago and had tried to commit suicide twice before and had been treated at a psychiatric clinic.
"We don't know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others," Mr Herrmann said earlier.
One US intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators would focus on what the bomber was doing before he left Syria, why he was denied asylum, and whether the attempted attack was personal or political.
The blast was first reported at 10.12pm on Sunday.
BREAKING: Bavaria's top security official says Ansbach attacker a 27-year-old Syrian who had been denied asylum.
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 25, 2016
BREAKING: Bavaria's top security official says Ansbach attacker blew himself up after being turned away from music festival.
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 25, 2016
The man allegedly behind the #Ansbach bombing was a 27-year-old Syrian who had been living in Germany for 2 years https://t.co/nCoUXOBnSI
— dwnews (@dwnews) July 25, 2016
BREAKING: Police say man, a likely attacker, dies in explosion in southern Germany; 10 others injured.
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 24, 2016
Mr Herrmann said the man had apparently been denied entry to the Ansbach Open music festival shortly before the explosion, which happened outside a restaurant called Eugens Weinstube.
More than 2000 people were evacuated from the festival after the explosion, police said. A large area around the blast site remained blocked off hours later.
Ansbach resident Thomas Debinski said people panicked when they heard the explosion, especially after the events of the past week.
"Suddenly you heard a loud, a really loud bang, it was like an exploding sound, definitely an explosion," he said. "[People were] definitely panicking."
Mr Debinski said it soon became clear that someone had set off a bomb in a rucksack.
It was the fourth violent incident in Germany in a week and came as the country was still on edge after the killing of nine people by an 18-year-old Iranian-German gunman in Munich on Friday.
The blast outside a restaurant in the town Ansbach prompted the evacuation of more than 2000 people from a nearby "Ansbach Open" music festival, police said.
The suspect was allowed to stay in Germany due to the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and wounding two people with a machete in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.
"After what just happened in Munich, and today in Reutlingen, what you hear about, it is very disturbing, when you know that such a thing can happen so close to you, in such a small town as Ansbach," Mr Debinski said.
That attack came after a refugee from Pakistan wielding an axe injured five people near Wuerzbuerg, also in southern Germany, before he was shot dead by police on July 18.
Ansbach is home to a US Army base and the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade. A spokesman at the base said the base had no information about the explosion.
There was no immediate word on possible motives for the explosion, but police said neither Sunday's machete attack nor Friday's shooting in Munich bore any sign of connections with Islamic State or other militant groups.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the July 18 axe attack in Germany. It also claimed responsibility for the July 14 attack in which a Tunisian man drove a truck into Bastille Day holiday crowds in the French city of Nice, killing 84 people.
Reuters, AP