A Syrian man, 27, who had been refused asylum in Germany, killed himself on Sunday with a bomb he set off near a music festival in Ansbach, Bavaria, in southern Germany. This is the fourth violent attack by Muslims in southern Germany in less than a week. According to police, 12 people were injured in the explosion, three seriously. According to state officials, the man had been denied entry to the music festival just before the explosion.
The Syrian man was carrying a backpack filled with explosives and metal parts, in what officials are saying could have been an ISIS-inspired attack. Officials also said the man had arrived in Germany two years ago and this was his third suicide attempt.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters early Monday that it was not yet certain whether the man had planned to “take others with him into death.”
Police evacuated more than 2,000 people from the festival after the explosion, and cordoned off a large area around the explosion site.
According to Reuters, citing a US intelligence official (The US maintains an Army base in Ansbach), investigators are focusing on the bomber’s history before he left Syria, the reasons he was denied asylum, and why he blew himself up — was it personal, political, religious, or all three.
Last week an Afghan refugee used an axe and a knife to injured a family of four on a train in southern Germany before being shot dead by police. On Friday, nine people were killed and more than 20 injured by an Iranian in Munich, also in southern Germany. 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.