Breaking News: bomb blast hit Ansbach in Germany

Fifteen people have been injured after a rejected Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up in a ‘deliberate explosion’

• Attacker pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader, say authorities

• A 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a wine bar in the German town of Ansbach after being refused entry to a music festival shortly after 10pm on Sunday night.
• Police found a video on the bomber’s phone showing him declaring his support for the leader of Islamic State. In the video the attack is described as “revenge” against Germany, according to Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann.
• The Isis-linked Amaq news agency said the attacker was an Isis “soldier” who carried out the attack in response to the terror group’s calls to target countries of the US-led coalition who were fighting it. It has offered no proof for the claim.
• Fifteen people were injured in the blast, including four who are in a serious condition.
• The unnamed perpetrator had been denied asylum a year ago and had a history of making attempts on his own life. He was refused refugee status because he had previously been granted asylum in Bulgaria.
• A previous attempt to deport him to Bulgaria was suspended because of his mental problems. A second deportation order was made as recently as 13 July.
• The bomb was in a backpack carried by the dead man and contained enough pieces of metal to have killed many people. It is believed the device he was carrying exploded although it is not clear whether it was a suicide bombing or whether the man intended to plant it and harm others.
• Masked police raided a refugee centre where the attacker had lived. As well as Salafist video they recovered material that could be used in a bomb.
• The Ansbach bombing is the fourth attack to hit Germany in a week. Last Monday, a teenager armed with an axe and a knife wounded five people on a train near Würzburg. On Friday, an 18-year-old Iranian-German who was obsessed with mass killings shot dead nine people in Munich. And earlier on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian asylum seeker killed a woman with a machete and injured two other people in Reutlingen.
• Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, has ordered an increased police presence at airports and train stations and stop and search operations close to border areas.
• German MP Stephan Mayer, the home affairs spokesman for Angela Merkel’s CDU, rejected claims that Germany’s acceptance of so many refugees was to blame for the spate of attacks. He accepted that there “is a lot of space for improvement” in the way Germany deals with the influx of migrants, but added: “It is completely wrong to blame Angela Merkel, or her refugee policies, for these incidents.”