Munich’s Oktoberfest reopened at 5:30 p.m. after police completed a security sweep prompted by an explosives threat connected to a deadly incident at a house in the north of the city. Investigators ultimately found no link between the festival and the explosions and fire at the residence.
Authorities delayed the opening of the festival grounds at Theresienwiese after finding a written, non-specific threat that mentioned Oktoberfest. More than 500 officers took part in precautionary checks, using specialist resources that included sniffer dogs and technical equipment. Police later said the threat had not been substantiated, allowing visitors and staff to return after the hours-long closure.
The alert began with a fire and explosions before dawn at a detached home in northern Munich. Police said the building had been deliberately set alight in what preliminary evidence indicated was a domestic dispute. Explosive traps were discovered inside the property, and officers also found that the suspected perpetrator’s van had been booby-trapped. Specialist teams were deployed to neutralise the devices.
Police tracked a 57-year-old suspect as he fled the scene and later found him near a lake. He died by suicide, according to the preliminary investigation. Officers also had to make safe explosives in a backpack he was carrying. A 90-year-old man believed to be the suspect’s father was found dead at the house. The suspect’s 81-year-old mother and 21-year-old daughter were injured and taken to hospital.
The Bavarian interior ministry said the dispute appeared to concern paternity. Officials said there was no indication of a political or extremist motive, although investigators initially examined several possibilities because of the explosives, the threat and a separate online claim about unrelated acts of arson. That online material was ultimately treated as a coincidence rather than part of the same case.
The precautionary closure had an immediate effect on one of Germany’s largest public events. Oktoberfest, which can draw millions of visitors, had opened on September 20 and was scheduled to end on October 5. Images from the grounds during the operation showed police moving through largely empty areas near rides and beer gardens.
The reopening did not end the investigation into the residential fire, deaths and explosive devices. It did establish that officers had found no evidence of an active danger at Theresienwiese. Authorities therefore separated the domestic case in northern Munich from the festival itself, while continuing work at the house and surrounding locations. The decision to reopen followed the completed search rather than a reduction in the broader response at the house, where heat, fire damage and explosive hazards continued to constrain investigators.
