Police say security sweep ends and Oktoberfest is reopening after bomb threat

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MUNICH (AP) — The Oktoberfest fairgrounds closed for several hours Wednesday as police conducted a security sweep of the famed beer festival due to a bomb threat by a suspect linked to an explosion across town in northern Munich.

Police in Bavaria, the state where Munich is located, said the suspect was believed to be a 57-year-old German citizen who, according to preliminary findings, had died by suicide near a lake in northern Munich.

The Oktoberfest grounds were reopened after police determined that the bomb threat linked to the suspect "was not confirmed," Munich police said on the X platform.

The suspect, who had been living in the town of Starnberg south of the city, had been carrying a backpack containing an explosive device, a Bavaria police statement said earlier.

City police said the blast before dawn in northern Munich at a residential building, which had been deliberately set on fire, appeared connected to a domestic dispute.

The Bavarian interior ministry described it as a dispute over paternity, German news agency dpa reported.

During the initial investigation, a letter written by the suspect and found near the crime scene contained a “non-specific” threat of explosives related to Oktoberfest, Bavaria police said.

The suspect’s 81-year-old mother and 21-year-old daughter, who is a German-Brazilian dual national, were injured in the incident and had been hospitalized for treatment, the statement added.

Specialized teams were called to the scene to defuse booby traps in the residential building, city police said. Photos from the area also showed a burned-out van.

Images from the Oktoberfest grounds showed police in fluorescent vests patrolling nearly-barren pavement near roller coasters and other rides and attractions that are part of the world’s largest beer festival, which usually attracts up to 6 million visitors.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said searches were conducted with sniffer dogs and technological tools at the Oktoberfest site. Bavaria police said more than 500 officers were deployed.

This year’s Oktoberfest began on Sept. 20 and is set to end on Sunday.

Decades ago, Oktoberfest was the target of a deadly neo-Nazi attack. A bombing on Sept. 26, 1980, claimed 13 lives, including that of three children and the attacker, student Gundolf Koehler, a supporter of a banned far-right group. More than 200 people were wounded.

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Dazio reported from Berlin.