Syrian suicide bomber injures 15 in blast outside German music festival
A Syrian man who had pledged alliance to ISIS blew himself up outside a German music festival near Nuremberg, injuring 15 people. The bomber’s home was raided and Islamist videos were discovered along with enough chemicals to make another bomb. This was the fourth act of terror in Germany in less than a week, leading to increased security at airports and train stations.

Bavarian police say last night's attacker had six Facebook accounts, including at least one under a false identity

Bomber, who was due to be deported to Bulgaria, was also carrying a roll of 50 euro notes with him at time of attack

Search of his home reveals bomb-making material and video on phone showing him pledging allegiance to ISIS

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A Syrian suicide bomber - nicknamed 'Rambo' - who blew himself up outside a German music festival had pledged allegiance to ISIS, had Islamist videos at his home and had enough chemicals to make another bomb, it has emerged.

The 27-year-old, named locally as Mohammad Daleel, injured 12 people outside a packed wine bar in Ansbach, near Nuremberg at 10pm last night after being turned away from an open-air music festival filled with 2,500 people because he didn't have a ticket.

Instead he walked to a bar in the centre of Ansbach, a town of 40,000 that is also home to a US Army base, and detonated a DIY bomb filled with metal shavings and screws. It was the fourth violent attack on members of the public in Germany in less than a week and authorities have now ordered increased security at airports and train stations.

Police today raided the Syrian's home in Ansbach as Germany's Interior Ministry revealed the attacker - dubbed Rambo by friends at his asylum shelter - had been refused asylum and was due to be deported to Bulgaria.

Bavaria's top security official Joachim Herrmann said a video has been found on the bomber's phone showing him pledging allegiance to ISIS. Petrol, chemicals and other materials that could be used to make a bomb were also discovered. Police say he had six Facebook accounts, including one under a false identity.

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Pictured: The Syrian suicide bomber named locally as Mohammad Daleel, injured 12 people outside a packed wine bar in Ansbach

Crime scene: This is the rucksack that the suicide bomber used to carry his explosives in before blowing himself up outside a packed Bavarian bar last night

Forensics: A special police officer examines a backpack at the entrance of a building in Ansbach, Germany, believed to have contained the deadly bomb

A hearse containing the remains of the suicide bomber - so far the only fatality of the attack - left the scene at dawn this morning

Emergency work: An ambulance takes away one of the 12 injured in the Ansbach wine bar - three are in a serious condition in hospital

Sealed off: Special police officers secure a street near the house where the Syrian man, a failed asylum seeker, lived in Ansbach

Attack: A 27-year-old suicide bomber, a Syrian man who was denied asylum in the country, injured 12 people in a packed wine bar attack in Ansbach, near Nuremberg last night

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

Police today raided the Syrian's home in Ansbach as it emerged he had been refused asylum but still allowed to stay in Germany and was not in danger of being deported immediately because of the civil war in his home land

The 27-year-old, named locally as Mohammad Daleel, injured 12 people outside a packed wine bar in Ansbach, near Nuremberg at 10pm last night after being turned away from an open-air music festival filled with 2,500 people because he didn't have a ticket

Claudia Frosch stands during an interview at the crime scene in front of 'Eugens Weinstube' one day after a bomb explosion in the Old Town of Ansbach. She was eating at the table next to the bomber and was inside the wine bar when the bomb exploded

The man announced a 'revenge' attack against Germany in the name of Allah 'because they help to kill Muslims' and involved the name of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It also emerged that the bomber was carrying a roll of 50 euro notes with him at the time of the attack.

MAN WITH KNIFE TRIES TO STAB TWO YOUNG WOMEN ON A TRAIN IN LATEST HORROR TO HIT GERMANY A man attempted to stab passengers on a train travelling from Hamburg to Bremen, forcing people to run for their lives. The 22-year-old pulled out the knife and threatened other people on the train on Saturday night. It is believed he specifically targeted two young women during the attack but no one was hurt. The attacker had been moved to a separate carriage by a train conductor after he was observed acting aggressively to passengers and staff. When the train arrived at Sottrum, the man changed carriages and then began threatening people with a knife, forcing people on board to flee. Having inflicted no injuries, he got off the train and handed himself over to police. It is understood the man was drunk during the incident and suffers from underlying mental health issues. Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->

This afternoon a news agency linked to ISIS said the attack was carried out by an Islamic State fighter, adding: 'He carried out the operation in response to calls to target countries of the coalition that fights Islamic State.'

The assailant was already known to police for possession of drugs and had also spent time in a psychiatric facility having attempted suicide on two occasions in the past. Daleel was apparently angry at facing deportation to Bulgaria and wanted asylum in Germany, reports claim.

A hearse containing his remains left the scene of the bombing at dawn while residents at the man's asylum shelter described him as a 'lying attention seeker'.

The latest incident will fuel growing public unease about Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy, under which more than a million migrants have entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

An interior ministry spokesman said the man had received two deportation orders - the latest on July 13 - but could not be returned directly to Syria because of the civil war ripping the country apart.

The first deportation notice was issued on December 22, 2014 and he was to be transported to Bulgaria because this was where he had submitted his first asylum request.

The spokesman, Tobias Plate, said he could not say 'at this moment why the deportation' of the asylum seeker didn't happen. It was not clear when he was supposed to be deported.

It comes after a spate of attacks in the south of the country.

On Sunday, a Syrian man hacked a woman to death with a machete and wounded two others outside a bus station in the southwestern city of Reutlingen before being arrested. Police said there were no indications pointing to terrorism.

Two days earlier, mentally ill loner Ali Sonboly, 18, went on a deadly gun rampage at a Munich mall, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded.

And an axe attack on a train near Wuerzburg last Monday wounded five. A 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker was shot and killed by police as he fled the scene.

The recent attacks in Bavaria came shortly after a Tunisian man driving a truck killed 84 people when he ploughed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, along the famed French Riviera.

Bavaria Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the man, who arrived in Germany two years ago, had tried to commit suicide twice before last night's bombing.

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

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

'A provisional translation by an interpreter shows that he expressly announces, in the name of Allah, and testifying his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a famous Islamist leader, an act of revenge against the Germans because they're getting in the way of Islam,' he said at a news conference.

Herrmann added: 'I think that after this video there's no doubt that the attack was a terrorist attack with an Islamist background.'

Earlier, Hermann had 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.

'It's terrible ... that someone who came into our country to seek shelter has now committed such a heinous act and injured a large number of people who are at home here, some seriously.

'It's a further, horrific attack that will increase the already growing security concerns of our citizens. We must do everything possible to prevent the spread of such violence in our country by people who came here to ask for asylum.'

He told Reuters the recent attacks raised serious questions about Germany's asylum law and security across the country and said he planned to introduce measures at a Bavarian government meeting on Tuesday to strengthen the police forces and ensure they have adequate equipment.

He said investigators had yet to determine the motive of the attacks. 'Because the rucksack and this bomb were packed with so many metal parts that could have killed and injured many more people, it cannot simply be considered a pure suicide attempt.'

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

Thousands of revellers had been enjoying the open air music festival in the hours before the blast went off nearby

Police photographers a flat where the 27-year-old Syrian suspect lived, after an explosion in Ansbach near Nuremberg, Germany

Investigators this morning descended on a flat in the town where the 27-year-old attacker is understood to have lived

The flat is understood to have been in a former hotel in Ansbach. A police officer is seen entering the building as investigations got underway this morning

Police were on guard outside a building believed to now act as an asylum centre as they investigated the background of the 27-year-old man this morning

Police officers are continuing to examine the scene outside a wine bar. The attack happened after the man was denied entry to a music festival

The assailant was already known to police for an offence linked to drugs and had also spent time in a psychiatric facility, it was revealed. Investigators work at the scene

Investigators were this morning seen entering a former hotel in the city where the 27-year-old is said to have lived. A team of 30 officers have been brought in to question acquaintances and examining evidence collected from his home at the asylum-seeker shelter.

One resident at the centre said he had occasionally had coffee with the attacker and they had discussed religion. Alireza Khodadadi told The Associated Press that the man, whom he would identify only as Mohammed, had told him that ISIS 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, and I understand that he wants to be in the centre of (attention), you know, he needed (attention),' Khodadadi said.

A social worker who knew him, Reinhold Eschenbacher, described him as 'friendly, inconspicuous and nice' when he came to his office pick up his welfare benefits.

The suicide bomber was named as Mohammad Daleel by other asylum seekers who lived with him at a budget hotel. Daleel lived alone in a one-bedroom floor of the Hotel Christl where the German Government paid the monthly rent of 192euros.

The bomber had lived at the hotel on a quiet residential street above the town of Ansbach for just over a year. He was known to his friends as 'Rambo' having got the nickname from other asylum seekers because of his long hair and muscular physique.

'He was nicknamed Rambo because of his muscles and the way her dressed. He would always wear a T-shirts and jeans and that is why he was called Rambo, said Mubariz Mahmood who lived in the same asylum seekers hostel.

'Until today that is what we knew him as. We all called him Rambo.'

Rambo was the fictional character created by actor Sylvester Stallone in 1982.

The original film 'Rambo: First Blood' told the story of a former Vietnam war veteran called John Rambo who fell foul of local police when he returns to a small US town to visit a friend. The action film was huge success and spawned three sequels with the latest made in 2008.

Mahmood said Daleel had not shown any signs of radicalisation towards the terror group ISIS.

He last saw him a week ago when Daleel waved at him from the balcony of his room on the second floor of the hotel used to house up to 35 asylum seekers.

Fellow resident Mubariz Mahmood (pictured) said Daleel had not shown any signs of radicalisation towards the terror group ISIS

Mahmood last saw him a week ago when Daleel waved at him from the balcony of his room (pictured) on the second floor of the hotel used to house up to 35 asylum seekers

Daleel died instantly while 17 others were injured when he blew himself up. Mahmood, 28, from Pakistan said Daleel did not have a job and relied on state handouts during his stay in Germany

Mahmood said: 'He told me that he had come Syria where the extremists and the Government were fighting. He left the country to get away from the fighting.

'I saw no signs that he had any support for the extremists. I was not aware he had any sympathy for them.'

Daleel died instantly while 17 others were injured when he blew himself up. Mahmood, 28, from Pakistan said Daleel did not have a job and relied on state handouts during his stay in Germany.

He said Daleel had told him that during his journey through the Balkans he had been fingerprinted in Bulgaria and thought the German Government would want to return him to that country,

He said he was unaware how Daeel managed to get his hands on the materials to make a homemade bomb. Police raided his second floor room and sealed off the Richard Wagner Street where he lived.

Residents woken by the sound of helicopter hovering overhead were warned residents to stay inside their homes.

Several of the residents in the street are serving US army personnel from the Ansbach base and were told to stay home while the investigation into Daleel was ongoing.

REFUGEE 'TERROR LINKS' PROBED Germany's top security official says authorities are conducting 59 investigations of refugees suspected of possible links to terrorist organisations. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says it would be wrong to put all refugees under general suspicion, 'even if there are investigations in individual cases.' The Funke newspaper group on Monday quoted him as saying: 'We are currently talking about 59 investigations for possible links to terrorist structures, and that's with many hundreds of thousands of newly arrived people.' He adds that in the overwhelming number of cases, reports turn out not to be true. De Maiziere called for Germany's borders to be better protected without preventing refugees from coming to the country by legal and safe means - 'in reasonable numbers.' He noted that in the Munich gun attack there was no indication that the perpetrator, the German-born son of Iranian asylum-seekers, had failed to integrate in German society. Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_2 - ->

Three local police officers today sat outside the hotel stopping media from going inside. White shutter had been pulled down on the bomber's window. A faded yellow carpet hung over the balcony while a blue ice box was in one corner.

The front of the hotel had more than a dozen bikes resting on the metal railings near the entrance.

Of the 35 asylum seekers who live in the hotel almost all are men aged under 30. Mahmoud said he had seen one of two women at the hotel.

Mahmood, who has a job working as a McDonalds restaurant in the town, said Daleel had told him he wanted to stay in Germany.

He wasn't aware that the bomber had his application rejected and had been ordered to leave the country.

'I think he wanted to stay in Germany. We did not talk much but would speak when we met in the kitchen. He would also wave to use from his balcony. He seemed friendly.'

Mahmoud said by blowing himself up Daleel would make it harder for asylum seekers to be accepted in Germany.

'They are people who are trying to help us and if this happens why should they help us,' he said as he stood outside the hotel where he has lived for two years

'If you do something bad, then people are not going to be so friendly. I don't understand why he would want to do this. This does not help people like me.'

Local residents living near the hotel said it had been turned over the asylum seekers two years ago after business from visitors dwindled.

One neighbour said a local woman offered to teach the asylum seekers German and 17 people had turned up for the first lesson.

By the end of the week only two had managed to stick with the class.

'I think if you are going to live in this country then you should make an effort to learn the language, ' said the woman in her 50s.

'We do not have any trouble from the asylum seekers but last summer I know a lot of the women felt uncomfortable when it was hot and they were wearing less clothes. The men would stare and it made me feel uncomfortable'

One US intelligence official said investigators would now focus on what the bomber was doing before he left Syria and why he was denied asylum.

US sources said the bombing did not appear to be a well-planned operation and could well turn out to be the act of another deranged individual.

There have been calls for an inquiry into how the bomber was able to assemble the explosives needed for a terror attack and whether he had links to any terrorist group.

When the blast happened at around 10pm last night initial reports were that it was a gas explosion. But hours later Ansbach's mayor Carda Seidel said the blast was intentional and caused by an explosive device.

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

As a precaution, the music festival was cancelled, with thousands of revellers evacuated. It was revealed that the man carrying the bomb in his backpack had been denied entry to the festival in the minutes before the blast. Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson was due to be performing at the time of the attack.

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

Eyewitness Kevin Krieger said: 'We were on the festival grounds. A band was playing when suddenly there was a loud bang. We all looked back. A man from security ran to the entrance.

'There were two people on the ground. They had injuries to their heads and necks. I tried to comfort them. The police cleared the area. Nobody was screaming. The explosion was very loud and I felt the shock waves on my body.'

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

A spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry said today there have not been any arrests in connection with the explosion.

HOW GERMANY IS REELING AFTER A SPATE OF BLOODY ATTACKS IN THE SOUTH OF THE COUNTRY IN THE LAST WEEK Last night's attack came as Germany was still reeling after a series of attacks in the south of the country in recent days. Although refugees were suspected in three of the four assaults, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government warned against branding migrants a general security threat after the country let in a record 1.1 million asylum seekers last year. Here is what we know about the attacks: July 24: Festival suicide bombing - A failed Syrian asylum seeker set off an explosive device near an open-air music festival in the southern city of Ansbach that killed himself and wounded a dozen others. The 27-year-old had spent time in a psychiatric facility, while the regional authorities said an there was 'likely' a jihadist motive for the attack. However a spokesman for the interior ministry later said there was as yet 'no credible evidence' of a link to Islamic extremism. July 24: Knife attack - A Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a Polish woman with a large kebab knife at a snack bar in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, in an incident police said did not bear the hallmarks of a 'terrorist attack' and was more likely a crime of passion. Three people were also injured in the assault, which ended when the 21-year-old assailant was deliberately struck by a BMW driver, believed to be the snack bar owner's son, trying to stop the man. People mourn in front of candles and flowers near the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, southern Germany, where an 18-year-old German-Iranian student ran amok on a shooting spree on July 22 July 22: Munich mall mass shooting - David Ali Sonboly, 18, shot dead nine people at a Munich shopping mall before turning the gun on himself, having spent a year planning the rampage. Police said that the German-Iranian was 'obsessed' with mass killers like Norwegian right-wing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik and had no links to the Islamic State group. July 18: Train axe attack - A 17-year-old migrant wielding an axe and a knife went on a rampage on a regional train, seriously injuring four members of a tourist family from Hong Kong and a German passer-by. ISIS group subsequently released a video purportedly featuring the assailant, named by media as Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, announcing he would carry out an 'operation' in Germany, and presenting himself as a 'soldier of the caliphate'. He is believed to have been Afghan or Pakistani. Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_3 - ->

The explosion went off outside the wine bar Eugens Weinstube during the final night of the three-day Ansbach Open music festival in the heart of the city, around 90 miles north of Munich.

Bavaria police said security at the event, held at the Reitbahn near the city's castle, noticed a young man acting suspiciously in the area at around 9.45pm.

The force said in a statement: 'The person was a young man, who carried a backpack and walked up and down the area next to the entrance at the Pfarrstrasse for a long period of time.

'Afterwards he made his way to the outdoor seating area of a restaurant. At around 10.10pm an explosion happened there (at the restaurant), after the young man briefly bent forwards.'

Bystanders thought there had been a gas explosion at a nearby restaurant in the aftermath of the blast.

Witness Thomas Debinski described the 'disturbing' scene in the small city as bystanders came to realise a violent act had taken place.

'People were definitely panicking, the rumour we were hearing immediately was that there had been a gas explosion,' he told Sky News.

'But then people came past and said it was a rucksack that had exploded. Someone blew themselves up. After what just happened in Munich it's very disturbing to think what can happen so close to you in such a small town.'

Emergency workers and vehicles raced to the scene shortly after 10pm last night

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

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

German police set up a roadblock in front of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus prior to the opening of the Bayreuth Festival. Following the killings in Munich, the traditional state reception of the renowned opera event have been cancelled this year

The state reception of the renowned Bayreuth opera festival has been cancelled following recent attacks in Germany. Barriers are pictured outside the festival theatre

'SERIOUS LOOPHOLES' IN EU RULES There are 'serious loopholes' in the EU's current rules on the acquisition and possession of firearms, but the bloc's executive is planning tighter restrictions an EU spokesman has said. Germany's vice-chancellor called for tightened gun laws following last Friday's shooting spree in Munich in which an 18-year-old gunman who is believed to have purchased his firearm illegally on the internet killed nine people as well as himself. If adopted, the EU Commission's package of proposals will 'make it more difficult to acquire firearms in the European Union, allow to better track legally held firearms and strengthen the cooperation between all member states,' EU spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said. The Commission, the EU's executive arm, issued the proposals in November, and they are now under consideration by the European Parliament and the governments of the EU's 28 member countries, said Mr Cardoso. The chief EU spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, said the bloc continues to keep the door open for people seeking asylum from war and persecution, but that Europeans must also defend themselves against attacks on their way of life. Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_4 - ->

The concert was shut down and around 200 police officers and 350 rescue personnel flooded the scene, with investigators later confirming the blast had been caused by a bomb.

Herrmann, said the suspect was a Syrian whose application for asylum had been rejected, but he had been allowed to stay in Germany due to the civil war.

He had been living in Ansbach since July 2 and was known to the authorities after committing two offences. He had also tried to commit suicide twice, police said.

In January a programme was launched in the city to help refugees assimilate by teaching them the basics of law in their new host country.

The initiative came amid growing tensions and concerns in Germany over the large numbers of migrants, and taught lessons on freedom of opinion, the separation of religion and state and the equality of men and women.

Police are yet to release more details on the attacker and he has not been named.

Earlier, Michael Schrotberger, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Ansbach, said his motives remained unclear. 'If there is an Islamist link or not is purely speculation at this point,' he said.

Investigators have appealed for any mobile phone footage taken at the scene of the attack, following similar appeals by Munich detectives who made their first arrest in connection with Friday's atrocity on Sunday.

Security measures at the nearby US airbase have since been heightened with delays expected in the area as a result. USAG Ansbach has about 8,000 staff who provide air traffic hub services for ground forces stationed throughout Europe.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere this morning cautioned Germans against indiscriminately branding all refugees a security threat after a rash of attacks over the last week.

'We must not place refugees under general suspicion despite individual cases that are under investigation,' he said in an interview with the Funke media group after a string of assaults in southern Germany, some involving asylum-seekers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer later expressed the government's 'shock' after the rash of violence over the last week but also warned against labelling all refugees.

'Most of the terrorists who carried out attacks in recent months in Europe were not refugees,' she said.