Germany Terror | Again, Syrian asylum seeker blows himself up in Ansbach

A failed Syrian asylum seeker has blown himself up and injured 15 other people with a backpack bomb near a festival in the south German town of Ansbach.

The 27-year-old man, who faced deportation to Bulgaria, detonated the device after being refused entry to the music festival, Bavarian officials say.

About 2,500 people were evacuated from the venue after the explosion.

It is the third violent attack in Bavaria in a week. The state's premier described it as "days of horror".

Bavaria has been on edge since a knife attack on a train last week that so-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind.

The Ansbach blast took place at 22:10 (20:10 GMT) on Sunday evening, outside the Eugens Weinstube bar in the centre of the town, which has a population of 40,000 and is home to a US military base.

The bomb went off close to the entrance to the Ansbach Open music festival.

A witness, Thomas Debinski, reported "panic" after the explosion, although some people had thought it was caused by a gas explosion.

"Then people came past and said it was a rucksack that had exploded," he told Sky News.

The town's mayor, Carla Seidel, confirmed that there were 15 injured, four of them in a serious condition.

Security services have sealed off the city centre and experts are trying to establish the kind of explosives the bomber used.

[BBC News]