Fatal explosion rocks German restaurant

  • 25/07/2016
Police at the scene of the explosion in Ansbach (Dennis Fuhner / Twitter)
Police at the scene of the explosion in Ansbach (Dennis Fuhner / Twitter)

An "explosive device" blew up in the centre of the Bavarian city of Ansbach on Sunday night (local time), killing one person and injuring 12 others.

The attacker has now been confirmed as a 27-year-old Syrian refugee, the single fatality in the explosion.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann says the man had arrived in Germany two years ago and was denied asylum a year later.

Mr Herrmann says the attacker blew himself up after being turned away from a music festival.

Mayor Carda Seidel said the detonation occurred near the entrance to the Ansbach Open 2016 music festival where approximately 2500 people were in attendance.

The attack took place near a bar at around 10pm local time and the festival was evacuated as a precaution as police and emergency services rushed to the scene.

It was the fourth violent episode in Germany in a week, three of them in Bavaria.

Earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman in a machete attack in Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.

That attack came days after a disturbed young German Iranian killed nine people in a shooting rampage in the centre of Munich and a refugee from Pakistan wielding an axe injured five people near Wuerzbuerg, before he was shot dead by police on July 18.

Ansbach is home to a US Army base and the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade. A spokesman at the base said the base had no information about the explosion.

Newshub. / Reuters