Oktoberfest tightens security after deadly knife attack in western Germany

Security has tightened at Germany’s legendary Oktoberfest as the country deals with the aftermath of last month’s deadly knife attack in Solingen in western Germany.

Ahead of the event, which is expected to attract some six million visitors, officials warned attendees to expect longer lines at entry points as metal detectors will be deployed for the first time in the Bavarian beer festival’s 189-year history.

Authorities say there are no specific threats to the world’s largest folk festival, which begins this Saturday and runs for 16 days.

The stepped-up security comes after an attack in the city of Solingen on 23 August that left three dead and eight wounded.

A 26-year-old Syrian suspect has been charged with carrying out the assault; he was an asylum seeker who reportedly absconded after his application was denied and before he could be deported to Bulgaria.

The so-called Islamic State group (IS) has claimed responsibility for his rampage, albeit without providing evidence.

The violence has left Germany shaken and pushed immigration back to the top of the country’s political agenda. In response, the interior ministry extended temporary border controls to all nine of its frontiers this week. The closures are set to last six months and are threatening to test European unity.

The effects of the Solingen attack and other recent violence across Germany will also be felt at Oktoberfest. Hand-held metal detectors will be used at the festival for the first time, with police and security staff using them on a random basis or following suspicious activity. Festival-goers will be prohibited from bringing in knives, glass bottles and backpacks.

In addition to some 600 police officers and 2,000 security staff, more than 50 cameras will be set up across the festival grounds, which will be fenced off.

“We have had to react to the fact that attacks with knives have increased in recent weeks and months,” Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter told The Associated Press during a media tour of the festival grounds. “We will do everything we can to ensure that nobody comes to Oktoberfest with a knife or other dangerous weapons.”

On alert

Oktoberfest is no stranger to increased security. In 2016, authorities implemented tighter measures in response to a series of attacks, during one of which a German teenager fatally shot nine people at a Munich mall before killing himself.

Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, said Oktoberfest officials are taking sensible approaches to security in light of Solingen, as well as other foiled plots across Europe recently.

Extremists and groups like IS seek locations where an attack would garner international headlines and “cause a lot of terror”, he said.

French authorities say they thwarted three plots to hit the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris and other cities that hosted the summer events, which included plans to attack “Israeli institutions or representatives of Israel in Paris.”

In Austria, officials last month arrested a 19-year-old who had plotted to attack now-cancelled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna in a scheme to kill tens of thousands of fans that was allegedly inspired by IS.

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“These are all global events where you can expect to cause a lot of attention,” Neumann told The Associated Press, explaining that IS has been gaining momentum during the Israel-Hamas war.

The group even referenced the war when it claimed responsibility for the Solingen violence, saying the attacker targeted Christians and that as a “soldier of the Islamic State” he carried out the assaults “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere”.

While Oktoberfest is a difficult event for police to secure completely, organisers are confident it can be done.

The festival’s organiser, Clemens Baumgärtner, promised it would be a safe public space — possibly “the safest place in Germany”.

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But Neumann is more sanguine about what can be done.

“It’s an iconic event and this is exactly the kind of event that they’d want to strike,” he said. “But with millions of people — drunk people to be honest — running around, it’s really difficult to control every movement.”