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Bavarian authorities have announced that the suspected suicide bomber, who was killed in the Ansbach explosion, was a 27-year-old Syrian whose asylum request was rejected last year. The motive behind the attack, which injured 12 people, remains unknown.
     The suspect was first noticed by security staff at the Ansbach Open concert at around 9:45pm, police said in an updated statement. After he was refused entrance, the 27-year-old Syrian sat outside a local wine restaurant, where at about 10:10pm, according to the testimony of witnesses, the suspect leaned forward and detonated explosives.

Police added that the suspect has lived in Ansbach since July 2, 2015, and had a “criminal” history. A special commission with more than 30 people was established to handle the investigation.

Bavarian authorities have announced that the suspected suicide bomber, who was killed in the Ansbach explosion, was a 27-year-old Syrian whose asylum request was rejected last year. The motive behind the attack, which injured 12 people, remains unknown.
     The suspect was first noticed by security staff at the Ansbach Open concert at around 9:45pm, police said in an updated statement. After he was refused entrance, the 27-year-old Syrian sat outside a local wine restaurant, where at about 10:10pm, according to the testimony of witnesses, the suspect leaned forward and detonated explosives.

Police added that the suspect has lived in Ansbach since July 2, 2015, and had a “criminal” history. A special commission with more than 30 people was established to handle the investigation.

The suspect lived in a hotel in Ansbach, the minister said. He had tried to commit suicide two times and was previously housed in a psychiatric hospital. In the coming days, the investigation will focus on establishing whether the man acted with suicidal intent, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told journalists.

So far, the investigation has found no evidence of an attempted political assassination or extremism, but such a possibility cannot be ruled out. The type of explosives detonated has not yet been established, but Hermann said that “metal parts” were apparently used in the improvised device.

A jihadist link cannot be excluded either, the minister said, since the presence of metal parts in the bomb indicates that the suspect had aimed to hurt as many people as possible.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees will reveal why the suspect’s asylum application had previously been rejected later in the day Herrmann noted that those who are “seeking protection in Germany, must show full respect for the German legal system and the German population.”

The minister added that the attack demonstrated the need "to strengthen controls on those we have living in our country".

Following a press conference, Herrmann told Germany’s DPA, that he personally considers the bombing in Ansbach to have been the work of an Islamist suicide bomber.

"My personal opinion is that, unfortunately I think, it is very obvious that there has been a real Islamist suicide attack here," Herrmann said early Monday.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack there has been a “very easy tendency to pile on and blame the local authorities for not protecting the population,” political analyst Max Abrahms told RT. “But it’s particularly difficult in the case of Islamic State because these are people who are prepared to die. So they are not easily deterred. They are highly motivated. They are attacking in all sorts of places, not just symbolic targets, but large crowds”.

“In an all it just seems very happen-stance where in terms of the variety of terrorism, the background, the geographical diffusion of the attacks – all of this makes counter-terrorism extraordinarily difficult, especially against this lone-wolf sort of threat,” Abrahms added.