Syrian refugee dies carrying bomb in Germany

A Syrian refugee set off an explosion at a bar in southern Germany that killed himself and wounded 12 others late on Sunday, German media agency DPA reported citing the local interior minister.

The 27-year-old man, whose asylum application had been rejected a year ago, had intended to disrupt a nearby pop music festival where 2,500 people had gathered, Joachim Herrmann said, according to DPA.

The incident will add to growing public unease surrounding Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy, under which more than a million migrants have entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing wars in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters at a hastily convened news conference on Monday that it was unclear if the man had planned to commit suicide or “take others with him into death”, according to news website Nordbayern.de.

Herrmann, whose remarks were confirmed by a ministry spokesman, said the Syrian man arrived in Germany two years ago and had tried to commit suicide twice before.

The man was carrying a backpack filled with explosives and metal parts that would have been sufficient to kill more people, Herrmann said. He said he could not exclude the possibility of an attack, but said that would have to be confirmed by an investigation.