Germany Warns Of Anti-migrant Backlash After Week Of Bloodshed

(@FahadShabbir)

Germany warns of anti-migrant backlash after week of bloodshed

ANSBACH, Germany, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th july, 2016) - Germany warned Monday of a potential backlash against migrants after a Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a music festival, capping a week of attacks that has shaken the country. The 27-year-old attacker wounded more than a dozen people in the southern city of Ansbach Sunday night and had spent time in a psychiatric facility, regional authorities said.

Berlin said there was as yet "no credible evidence" of a link to Islamic extremism. Europe's economic powerhouse was already reeling after nine people died in a shopping centre shooting rampage in Munich on Friday and four people were wounded in an axe attack on a train in Wuerzburg on July 18. All three assaults were in Bavaria which has been a gateway for tens of thousands of refugees under Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal asylum policy.

Merkel's deputy spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer expressed the government's "shock" after the rash of attacks but also warned against branding all refugees a security threat. "Most of the terrorists who carried out attacks in recent months in Europe were not refugees," she told reporters. "The terrorism threat (among refugees) is not larger or smaller than in the population at large." Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere also warned against placing refugees "under general suspicion", despite "individual cases that are under investigation". Police said the man intended to target the open-air festival but was turned away as he did not have a ticket, and detonated the device outside a nearby cafe.