German police closed the Oktoberfest fairgrounds and fanned out with sniffer dogs on Wednesday following a bomb threat from the suspected perpetrator of an explosion in northern Munich, authorities said.
Police in Bavaria, the state where Munich is located, said the suspect was believed to be a 57-year-old German citizen who, according to preliminary findings, had committed suicide near a lake in northern Munich.
The suspect, who had been living in the town of Starnberg south of the city, had been carrying a backpack containing an explosive device, the Bavaria police statement said. City police said the blast before dawn at a residential building, which had been deliberately set on fire, appeared connected to a domestic dispute. During the initial investigation, a letter written by the suspect and found near the crime scene contained a “non-specific” threat of explosives related to Oktoberfest. The suspect’s 81-year-old mother and 21-year-old daughter, who is a German-Brazilian dual national, were injured in the incident and had been hospitalised for treatment, the statement added. Specialised teams were called to the scene to defuse booby traps in residential building, police said. Photos from the area also showed a burned-out van. At the Oktoberfest site across town, police asked workers to leave the area. Authorities said the festival will be closed at least until 5 pm local time.
