Bavarian Oktoberfest Resumes Operations After Deadly Fire Assault and Bomb Threat

An individual from Germany perpetrated a lethal violent spree involving gunfire, bombs, and intentional fires targeting his family before taking his own life on Wednesday, prompting security fears in Munich that led to the temporary closure of the internationally renowned Oktoberfest.

Officials opted to shut down the event for a short period after finding a note the individual had dropped in a nearby mailbox that included a ambiguous warning aimed at the city's beer festival.

The mayor later issued the all-clear in the midday, and the event resumed in the evening.

Police stated that the individual in his late 50s had shot at his mother and father using a self-made weapon in an assault that started before dawn.

Subsequently, he set their house on fire, having previously booby-trapped the building with explosives.

Police indicated they believed he had likely fatally wounded his 90-year-old father, whose body was observed but could not be recovered from the still-burning house in the city's green northern Lerchenau district.

He also fired at his elderly mother, who was subsequently transported for medical care with injuries not considered life-threatening.

His 21-year-old daughter was also injured but was saved by firefighters from the upper level, having considered to jump to flee the flames.

The man, who has not been identified, fled after a law enforcement aircraft sighted him in the yard.

Following a brief chase, he stopped in a park by the lake and took his own life.

Explosives units were called in because the suspect had rigged the building with bomb materials – reportedly explosive devices attached to trip wires – and was also carrying an explosives-laden backpack.

Throughout the incident, he had also ignited three cars outside the residence, including his own vehicle.

The crime sparked a major police mobilisation shortly before 5:00 am in the morning and then the removal of nearby residents and a neighborhood educational facility.

Approximately 500 police, firefighters and other first responders were dispatched during the daylong crisis management efforts.

The interior minister commented there was no indication of a political or religious motive.

"Evidence suggests, incomprehensible as it may be, that this was exclusively a family matter," he added.

City authorities responded to the alarm by declaring the short-term shutdown of the festival, considered the biggest event of its kind globally.

The festivities, taking place from 20 September to early October this year, welcomed 6.7 million visitors in 2024.

It was hit by a historical incident in 1980 when a far-right group detonated a pipe bomb, killing a dozen individuals and injuring over two hundred others.