A 27-year-old Syrian man on Sunday night belw himself up near the entrance of a music festival in the southern German city of Ansbach, in the state of Bavaria, killing himself and injuring 15 people.
Authorities said it was a terrorist attack. The bomber, who was facing deportation to Bulgaria, had pledged allegiance to the leader of the ISIS terror group in a video on his cell phone, according to reports.
More than 2,000 people were evacuated from the music festival as a result of the blast, the fourth violent incident in Germany in recent days.
The suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at around 10 pm local time on Sunday as he carried a backpack through a busy area. The explosion happened in Ansbach, a small city of around 40,000 people around 150 kilometers north of Munich and home to a US Army base.
Four of those injured were in a serious condition, officials said.
Last week, a teenage Afghan refugee armed with an axe and knife injured four people on a train near Würzburg, about 50 kilometers from Ansbach, before being shot dead by police. Three people in a group from Hong Kong were seriously hurt and one slightly injured in the attack.
Meanwhile, Bavarian police said that the deadly shooting in Munich last Fridaywas committed by an 18-year-old man who had mental health issues, but was unlikely to have had any links to Islamist terror groups.
David S. went on a rampage outside a shopping center in the southern Bavarian city last Friday, killing nine people before commiting suicide. Police said he was obsessed with mass shootings, such as the Anders Breivik massacre in Norway in 2011 that left 77 people dead, and that there appeared to be no political or religious motive for the attack.
Charlotte Knobloch, the head of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said in a statement that while Germany was now in a state of shock and horror, it had to reflect on what could be done moving forward, to preserve its way of life and “to combat those who hate us for our values and want to destroy our freedom and democracy. “One thing is certain, we will not be intimidated,” she said. “There is uncertainty and concern, but more important than anything else is our unwavering commitment to our liberal beliefs.”
