Germany orders increased police presence after spate of attacks

Members of the German police walk in front of the festival hall prior to the opening of the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 25, 2016. PHOTO: EPA

BERLIN (REUTERS) - Germany will boost its police presence at airports and train stations and carry out stop and search operations close to border areas, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Monday (July 25), after four violent attacks in less than a week.

"What seems particularly important to me at the moment is an increased police presence in public spaces," de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

"I have therefore ordered that the federal police visibly increase their presence at airports and railways stations and that there are random checks, which are not visible but very effective, in border areas," he said.

A 27-year-old Syrian man denied asylum in Germany a year ago blew himself up on Sunday outside a crowded music festival, injuring 12 people.

It was the second violent incident in Germany on Sunday and the fourth in the past week, including the killing of nine people by a deranged 18-year-old Iranian-German gunman in the Bavarian capital Munich on Friday.

In another incident on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and wounding two people with a machete in the southwestern city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.

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