Oktoberfest Temporarily Closed After Linked Attack

Munich police temporarily closed the Oktoberfest fairgrounds on Oct. 1 after a letter from a suspect linked the festival to an early-morning attack and house fire in the Lerchenau district. Authorities said a 57-year-old man opened fire on his parents with a homemade weapon, rigged their home with explosive traps (reported as grenades on trip wires), set multiple vehicles ablaze, and was later found a few miles away carrying an explosives-laden backpack before dying by suicide. The suspect’s 81-year-old mother and 21-year-old daughter were injured and hospitalized, and police said the 90-year-old father may have been killed in the blaze. Specialist units — including bomb squads, nearly 30 bomb-sniffing dogs and hundreds of emergency personnel — swept the festival grounds and the crime scenes and defused devices. After searches found no ongoing danger, city officials cleared the Theresienwiese to reopen at about 5:30 p.m., and investigations into motive and any further links across Munich were ongoing.