Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, is due to give a press statement any moment.
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De Maizière says the Ansbach attacker had been given refugee status in Bulgaria which is why his application in Germany was refused. A deportation order was suspended because of the suspect mental health problems.
Analyst Michael S. Smith, a member of the US Congressional Taskforce on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, confirms there has been no claim of responsibility from Islamic State channels for the Ansbach attack.
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Michael S. Smith II@MichaelSSmithII
TRACKING UPDATE No claim of responsibility for #ANSBACHattack posted in any of IS’s official Telegram channels.
6:24 PM – 25 Jul 2016
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21m ago13:52
Hans-Olaf Henkel an MEP for the centre right Alliance for Progress and Renewal, criticised Angela Merkel’s open refugee policy in the wake of a week of violence in Germany.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme he said: “This welcome policy of Frau Merkel has definitely incited thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people to take this risky route, from rather safe camps to come to Europe in the first place. So she must be blamed for the fact that a lot of refugees came because they got the impression that they were welcome by Germany.
“This policy has clearly divided Europe. There is not a single head of state of state or government in Europe who follows the policy of Frau Merkel.”
Henkel claimed Merkel’s policy had contributed to the UK’s vote to leave the European Union. He said: “I followed the Brexit discussion in the UK and I noticed in the last couple of weeks of the debate, the discussion about immigrants got really in the forefront. I have noted that [Nigel] Farage and [Boris] Johnson could make a point by saying ‘look these refugees, which Germany now takes, will be integrated and once they have a German passport they can show up in London’. I was against Brexit but I’m afraid Frau Merkel’s policy had something to do with the result of Brexit referendum.”
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40m ago13:32
Germany’s federal criminal police have 410 leads on possible terrorists among refugees, according to Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper, Reuters reports.
Investigations have been launched in 60 cases, the newspaper said. It cited federal BKA police as saying they did not currently have any concrete indications of attack plans.
“In view of continuing migration to Germany we must assume that there could be active and former members, supporters and sympathisers of terrorist organisations or Islamist-motivated war criminals among the refugees,” the newspaper quoted federal police as saying.
The mayor of Ansbach, Carda Seidel, is giving a press conference. She says 15 people were injured in the Ansbach attack, including four who are in a serious condition.
No one suffered any life-threatening injuries, she added. Most of the injuries were mainly from splinters.
She says security measures were tightened after events of recent days, so that bag checks were introduced for Sunday night’s festival.
Earlier it emerged that the suspect tried to enter the festival grounds but was turned back because he had no ticket. He immediately detonated the explosives in his rucksack.
“Had he managed to get into the festival, there would certainly have been more victims,” Nuremberg’s deputy head of police, Roman Fertinger, said. The man’s rucksack contained the types of metal items used in woodwork and available at DIY stores.
Police in Ansbach have appealed to witnesses to pass on their photographs and videos of the attack, according to Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
The Ansbach bomber received two deportation orders including one as recently as 13 July, AP reports.
He was due to be deported to Bulgaria. Kate Connolly has more of the background to his status:
A federal interior ministry spokesman said he could not yet say why the suspect, who arrived in Germany in 2014 and whose asylum application was turned down a year ago, had not been deported. He was to be sent back to Bulgaria under the Dublin regulation, which stipulates that a refugee’s EU country of first contact is responsible for processing his or her asylum request.
Germany suspended the Dublin regulation rules last August, saying they were not working. The suspect, who has not yet been identified, is believed to have been granted temporary leave to stay in Germany due to the civil war in his home country.
Security measures at the US airbase in Ansbach have been tightened in the wake of the apparent suicide bombing. A message on theUSAG Ansbach home page warns that delays are to be expected as a result, for those entering or leaving the base.
USAG Ansbach, which has eight barracks and about 8,000 staff, is the air traffic hub for US ground forces in Europe.
Michael S. Smith II @MichaelSSmithII
