{UAH} THERE HAVE BEEN TWO MORE ATTACKS IN GERMANY

Syrian refugee arrested in machete murder in Germany

BERLIN –  A 21-year-old Syrian refugee is accused of using a machete to kill a woman and injure two other people in Germany on Sunday, Reuters reported, citing police.

The man was arrested after the attack, which occurred in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, according to German media.

The alleged assailant, whose name has not yet been disclosed, was known to police from a previous incident in which people were injured, a police spokesperson said.

Investigators believe the man acted alone.

"There is no danger to anyone else at this time," he told Reuters.

The Bild newspaper reported the woman who was killed worked at the kebab stand near the bus station where the confrontation took place.

Authorities had yet to disclose a motive for the incident, BILD and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspapers reported.

The attack comes as Germany is on edge, following a rampage at a Munich mall on Friday night in which nine people were killed, and an ax attack on a train a week ago that left five wounded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Syrian man denied asylum in Germany injures 12, kills self in blast

A Syrian man who had been denied asylum in Germany blew himself up Sunday and injured 12 people after being turned away from an open-air music festival in the city of Ansbach, officials said.

"We don't know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others," Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann said.

Herrmann added that the man’s request for asylum was rejected a year ago, but he was allowed to remain in Germany because of the strife in Syria.

He said three of the 12 victims suffered serious injuries.

"My personal view is that I unfortunately think it's very likely this really was an Islamist suicide attack," Herrmann told German news agency dpa.

Earlier, spokesman Michael Schrotberger said an Islamist link was "pure speculation."

The unnamed man had repeatedly received psychiatric treatment, including for attempted suicide, Herrmann said.

The explosion came as Germany, and the southern state of Bavaria in particular, have been on edge. Just two days earlier, a man went on a deadly rampage at a Munich mall, killing nine people and leaving dozens wounded.

And an ax 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.

Authorities said they were alerted to an explosion in the city’s center around 10 p.m. Bavarian broadcaster reported that 200 police officers and 350 rescue personnel were brought in following the explosion in Ansbach.

The city's mayor, Carda Seidel, told local media that an "explosive device" blew up in the city center but provided few other details, according to Sky News.

In Munich on Sunday evening, 1,500 people gathered at the scene of the shooting there, lighting candles and placing flowers in tribute to the victims of an 18-year-old German-Iranian. Police said that he had planned the attack for a year.

After the Munich attack, Herrmann urged the German government to allow the country's military to be deployed to support police during attacks. Germany's post-war constitution, because of the excesses of the Nazi era, only allows the military to be deployed domestically in cases of national emergency.

Herrmann has called those regulations obsolete and said that Germans have a "right to safety."

Back in January, Bavaria's justice minister launched a state program in Ansbach meant to teach refugees the basics of law in their new host country. The initiative came amid growing tensions and concerns in Germany about how it would integrate the estimated 1 million-plus migrants it registered crossing into the country last year.

Classes include lessons about freedom of opinion, the separation of religion and state and the equality of men and women.

"Germany is an attractive country because it respects the dignity of every human being," an educational film shown to newcomers said, "and it is supposed to stay that way."

 

 

EM

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