15 wounded as Syrian migrant blows himself up in Germany
ansbach (Germany) — A failed asylum-seeker from Syria blew himself up and wounded 15 people after being turned away from an open-air music festival in southern Germany, authorities said on Monday. It was the fourth attack to shake Germany in a week — three of them carried out by recent migrants.
The 27-year-old, whom authorities have not identified, set off a backpack laden with explosives and sharp bits of metal outside a bar on Sunday night after being refused entry to the nearby festival in the southern town of Ansbach because he didn’t have a ticket.
Roman Fertinger, the deputy police chief in nearby Nuremberg, said there likely would have been more casualties if the man had managed to enter the concert venue.
Four of the 15 victims suffered serious injuries in the blast.
“My personal view is that I unfortunately think it’s very likely this really was a militant suicide attack,” Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann told German news agency dpa. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Herrmann said the man’s request for asylum was rejected a year ago, and a spokesman for Germany’s interior ministry said he had received two deportation notices.
Tobias Plate said the man was most recently told on July 13 that he would be deported to Bulgaria, where he submitted his first asylum request.
Plate told reporters that the first deportation notice was issued on December 22, 2014, but it wasn’t clear why he hadn’t been deported then. Asylum-seekers are routinely deported back to the first country where they registered if they don’t follow proper procedures, even if they’re considered to have a legitimate claim for asylum.
The unnamed man had repeatedly received psychiatric treatment,
My personal view is that I unfortunately think it’s very likely this really was a militant suicide attack Joachim Hermann, Bavarian minister
including twice for attempted suicide, authorities said, and had been known to police for drug possession.
Asuthorities on Monday morning raided the asylum shelter where he lived in the suburbs of Ansbach and searched his room. One resident there said he had occasionally drunk coffee with the attacker and they had discussed religion. Alireza Khodadadi told AP that the man, whom he would identify only as Mohammed, had told him that the extremist Daesh group was not representative of Islam.
“He always said that, no, I’m not with them, I don’t like them and such stuff. But I think he had some issues because, you know, he told lies so often without any reason,
He (the atacker) always said that, no, I’m not with them, I don’t like them and such stuff Alireza Khodadadi,a local resident
and I understand that he wants to be in the centre of (attention), you know, he needed (attention),” Khodadadi said.
A team of 30 investigators was interviewing the man’s acquaintances and examining evidence collected from his home. — AP