Don’t know if man planned on suicide or had intention of killing others: Bavarian Minister

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann addresses a news conference after an explosion in Ansbach, near Nuremberg, Germany July 25, 2016. (Source: REUTERS photo)

Bavaria’s top security official on Monday said a man who blew himself up after being turned away from an open-air music festival in the southern German city of Ansbach was a 27-year-old Syrian who had been denied asylum. “We don’t know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said. He added that the man’s request for asylum was rejected a year ago, but he was allowed to remain in Germany on account of the situation in Syria.

Authorities said in a statement that they were alerted to an explosion in the city’s center shortly after 10 pm on Sunday. The DPA news agency reported that the nearby open-air concert with some 2,500 in attendance was shut down as a precaution after the explosion.

Twelve people were injured in the explosion, which came two days after a man went on a deadly rampage at a Munich mall, killing nine people, and after an axe attack on a train near Wuerzburg last Monday wounded five.

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Germany, and Bavaria in particular, have been on edge after a deadly rampage at a Munich mall on Friday in which nine people were killed, and an ax attack on a train near Wuerzburg last Monday in which five people were wounded. Both came shortly after a Tunisian man in a truck killed 84 people when he plowed through a festive crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, on the French Riviera.

Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reported that about 200 police officers and 350 rescue personnel were brought in following the explosion in Ansbach.