German Official: Syrian Man Who Was Denied Asylum Blows Himself Up Near Music Festival

BERLIN (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Bavaria's top security official says a man who blew himself up after being turned away from an open-air music festival in the southern German city of Ansbach was a 27-year-old Syrian who had been denied asylum.

"We don't know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others," Joachim Herrmann said.

He added that the man's request for asylum was rejected a year ago, but he was allowed to remain in Germany on account of the situation in Syria.

Twelve people were injured in the explosion

Ansbach police said in a statement that just after 10 p.m. Sunday they were alerted to an explosion in the city center.

"A man, according to our current knowledge the perpetrator, died" in the blast they said in the short statement. Further details weren't immediately available and they did not pick up their telephone lines.

German police officials told CBS News a big bang was heard near the entrance of the music festival. No shrapnel, screws or nails were found near the blast.

The dpa news agency reported that the nearby open-air concert with some 2,500 in attendance was shut down as a precaution after the explosion.

The city's mayor, Carda Seidel, told reporters that an "explosive device" blew up in the city center but provided few other details.

The Bavarian Interior Ministry told dpa that it appeared to possibly be a bombing attack, saying that there was evidence that there was a "deliberate explosion."

The website for a group of local newspapers, nordbayern.de, reported that none of the 10 injured were in life-threatening condition.

Germany, and Bavaria in particular, are on edge after a deadly rampage at a Munich mall on Friday in which nine people were killed and an ax attack on a train near Wuerzburg last Monday in which five people were wounded.

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