Failed Syrian asylum seeker, 27, dies in 'deliberate' explosion at a restaurant near Nuremberg, leaving at least eleven injured and causing evacuation of music festival

Suspected suicide attacker died and at least 12 people have been injured

Nearby music festival quickly cancelled as Germany remains on high alert

Reports suggest the festival full of 2,500 revellers was the intended target

The attack is now the fourth violent incident in the country in a single week

By AMIE GORDON PUBLISHED: 22:12 GMT, 24 July 2016 | UPDATED: 03:18 GMT, 25 July 2016

The suicide bomber who injured 12 people when he blew himself near a German music festival was a Syrian man who was denied asylum in the country, officials have revealed.

The 27-year-old bomber is said to have detonated the explosive device outside a packed wine bar in Ansbach, near Nuremberg.

He is thought to have been turned away from the open-air event filled with 2,500 people, which may have been his intended target.

The blast tore through the busy area at around 10pm local time on Sunday. It comes as Germany remains on high alert in the wake of three other violent attacks across the country in just one week.

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Video footage which has emerged from the scene this evening shows scores of people fleeing the
area as heavily armed police cordoned off the city centre



As security was stepped up in the wake of recent terror attacks, heavily armed police stood guard at the scene

Left, Senior emergency doctor Peter Seyerlein and right, Mayor of Ansbach Carda Seide,
who both addressed a press conference following the explosion



The man killed by an explosion at a bar in the southern German city of Ansbach was the one who set
off the blast, local police said


Bavaria Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the man had tried to commit suicide twice before.

It is unclear if he had planned to kill himself or 'take others with him into death' the Nordbayern website reported.

Ansbach mayor Carda Seidel said the blast was intentional and caused by an explosive device - not an accidental gas explosion as earlier reports suggested.

Police said that 'a man, according to our current knowledge the perpetrator, died' in the blast.

A spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry added: 'At present we assume it is not an accident.'

As a precaution, the music festival was cancelled, with thousands of revellers evacuated.

Unconfirmed reports on social media claimed a man with a backpack was denied entry to the festival just moments before the blast.


Hundreds of members of the public were evacuated from the area following the explosion


Emergency services have the city on lockdown as this now become the fourth violent incident in the
country in just one week



A major police operation is now underway at the scene of the blast, with heavily armed officers standing
guard



Officers have cordoned off the centre of the Bavarian city following the blast - in which the suspected
attacker is thought to have been killed



The explosion near a restaurant killed the suspected attacker and injured several others in the German
city of Ansbach, near Nuremberg



The town's mayor has now said the blast was caused by an explosive device, and was not an accidental
gas explosion as earlier reports suggested



A policeman with a machine gun stands guard near the scene of the attack which has left around a
dozen injured and one dead


Video footage which has emerged from the scene this evening shows scores of people fleeing the area as heavily armed police cordoned off the city centre.

Germany's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, is being briefed and is on his way to the scene.

A spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry said they are not aware of any arrests in connection with the explosion.

'The explosion was set off deliberately,' said Michael Siefener, a spokesman for the regional interior ministry, adding that authorities were trying to establish the exact cause.

The explosion went off outside the wine bar Eugens Weinstube, and large cordons have been put in place around the area while the emergency services work to establish what happened.

This comes amid heightened security measures in the country, as Germany reels from Friday's Munich massacre that left nine dead and 27 injured and a terrorist axe attack on a Bavaria train last Monday that left two people fighting for their lives.


Emergency workers and vehicles raced to the scene shortly after 10pm this evening

The incident comes as Germany remains on high alert in the wake of Friday's Munich massacre that
left nine dead and 27 injured and a terrorist axe attack on a Bavaria train last Monday that left two
people fighting for their lives



Heavily armed police have stormed the scene and a large scale emergency operation is now underway


The explosion took place in the city of Ansbach, Germany - close to a busy music festival

Just hours before the blast on Sunday, a Syrian refugee wielding a machete killed a pregnant woman and injured a man and another woman in Germany before being arrested by police after he was run over by a man driving a BMW.

The attack happened in the south western city of Reutlingen near a doner kebab stand in a bus station at Listplatz Square in what has been described as a 'crime of passion'.

German media have been reporting that the motive for the attack in the city south of Stuttgart was unclear but the attacker and the 45-year-old Polish victim both worked at the same snack bar.

Two other people were injured.

And on Friday nine people were shot dead following a deadly rampage near a shopping centre in Munich.


Germany's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, is being briefed and is on his way to the scene


Early local media reports had suggested the explosion was accidental, however it has now been
confirmed as a deliberate act



A nearby music festival, attended by some 2,500 revellers, has now been cancelled as Germany
remains on high alert in the wake of a series of incidents in recent days


Failed Syrian asylum seeker, 27, blows himself up at restaurant near Nuremberg, injuring 12 and causing mass evacuation of German music festival - which was the intended target