Asylum-seekers

German officials vowed tighter security and called for tougher controls of asylum-seekers Tuesday in the aftermath of four attacks in the country in the span of a week, two of which were claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

The attacks left ten victims dead and dozens wounded and have rekindled concerns about Germany’s ability to cope with the estimated 1 million migrants

registered entering the country last year.

“The Islamic State is waging a brutal war of aggression ... against our way of life,” said Joachim Herrmann, the top security official in Bavaria, where three of the attacks took place.

In the most recent attack claimed by IS, a Syrian man on Sunday blew himself up outside a crowded music festival in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, injuring 15 people. The man had unsuccessfully tried to find asylum in Germany and was awaiting deportation.

In the other attack, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker wounded five people with an ax before being killed by police near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg.

In the deadliest attack in the past week, the 18-year-old son of Iranian immigrants went on a rampage at a Munich mall, killing nine people and wounding dozens. Authorities say he was undergoing psychiatric treatment and had no known links to terrorism.

And on Sunday hours before the Ansbach attack, a Syrian man killed a woman with a knife in the southwestern city of Reutlingen before being captured by police in an incident authorities say was not believed linked to terrorism.

Herrmann said changes need to be made to laws — possibly at the European level — to allow for quicker deportation of people like the Ansbach attacker, while authorities in Germany need to investigate how the man, known as Mohammad Daleel, was able to collect enough material to make at least two bombs in his room in an asylum-seeker home.