Oktoberfest briefly closed by bomb threat, deadly family drama

Germany's famed Oktoberfest was briefly shut Wednesday after threats against it by a man who appeared to have torched his parents' home with family inside, and was later found with an explosives-laden backpack.

Police said the 57-year-old man had wounded his mother and daughter, booby-trapped and set ablaze their home, and then killed himself at a nearby lake in the city's leafy northern Lerchenau district.

They said he was still alive when found but badly wounded, and later died.

Police also said he was "carrying a backpack, which, according to current information, contains an explosive device that must now be deactivated".

A written threat from the suspect against Oktoberfest was also found, leading Munich officials to temporarily shutter and sweep the site of the globally renowned festival for explosives.

Munich mayor Dieter Reiter later said it would reopen at 5.30 pm local time (1530 GMT).

Police have "checked the situation and have given the all clear," Reiter said in an Instagram post.

The alarm about the incident in the city's north was raised before dawn, when blasts were heard inside the burning house and police commandos rushed to the scene, where three vehicles were also ablaze.

Police spoke of a dramatic and deadly "family dispute", while unconfirmed reports said the suspect had rigged the house with explosives reported to be hand grenades attached to tripwires.

Police also said that two other people were injured -- the man's 81-year-old mother and his 21-year-old daughter, a German-Brazilian citizen, with both receiving medical treatment in hospital.

They said they were checking if anyone else was inside the building.

Police secured a wide perimeter around the house, from where smoke billowed into the sky, and evacuated nearby residents while also shutting a local high school.

Commandos later also searched the home of the dead suspect in the town of Starnberg, southwest of Munich.

Oktoberfest, which is held this year from September 20 to October 5, is considered the largest such folk gathering in the world. It welcomed 6.7 million visitors in 2024.

It was previously hit by attacks, the most deadly in 1980 when a far-right group detonated a pipe bomb that killed 13 people and wounded more than 200.