At least 12 people have been injured after a Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a wine bar in Germany.
According to Patrick Christys story on Express, The attack took place in Ansbach, near Nuremburg, after the 27-year-old was denied access to the nearby Ansbach Open music festival, according to Germany’s interior minister Joachim Herrmann.
Herrmann said the suspect, who was known to police, had lived in Germany for two years but was denied asylum in the country a year ago. He said it is unclear if the suspect intended to kill others or just himself but said he had “tried to commit suicide” twice before and had previously been in psychiatric care in the district hospital in Ansbach.
Of the 12 people injured, three were critically injured in the blast, police said. Now, photographs have emerged of armed police raiding an Ansbach propety, which local media believe to be the residence of the bomber. Security officers also entered a refugee camp, near Ansbach today to secure items linked with the bomber.
The emergency doctor checked to see if the bomber could be resuscitated, but he was already dead. Investigators are probing links to terrorist organisations and have not ruled out the possibility the bomber was an Islamic extremist. Herrmann said the contents of the Syrian man’s backpack could have killed many more people, with the material used to make the bomb coming from metal items used in “wood manufacturing” – such as nails and screws. Herrmann said: “It is terrible that someone abuses the opportunity to find protection here in such a way. I am appalled by that.
“We have to do all we can so that such violence in our country committed by asylum seekers who have come to our country will not spread any further.” Chancellor Angela Merkel, who allowed over a million refugees into Germany in an act of humanitariasm unparelleled in the country’s postwar history, has been left reeling by the week’s events.
Rivals such as the right wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) have been gloating on the Internet about the attacks which they say are a result of her her policies. Police said the Ansbach bomber came to Germany two years ago and last year was denied permission to settle in the country. But he was NOT deported…due to the situation in his homeland.
Interior minister Herrmann said he found it “outrageous” that the man – known to police in the town of 40,000 people for petty criminality – had abused the asylum system in such a way.
