Muenster attacker was lone German with mental health problems - minister

A woman lays flowers on the site where on April 7 a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

MUENSTER, Germany (Reuters) - The man who drove a camper van into a group of people sitting outside a restaurant in the German city of Muenster on Saturday acted alone and appears to have had mental health problems, the regional interior minister said on Sunday.

The man killed two people when he ploughed the vehicle into people seated at tables outside the Grosser Kiepenkerl eatery, a popular destination for tourists in the old town of the university city in western Germany. He then shot himself dead.

Muenster Mayor Markus Lewe, North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) Internal Affairs Minister Herbert Reul, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and NRW Minister-President Armin Laschet mourn at the site where, on April 7, a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

"We now know it was in all likelihood a lone perpetrator, a German," Herbert Reul, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Muenster, told reporters.

"There are lots of indications the person in focus had (psychological) abnormalities. This must be carefully investigated," he said after paying his respects to the victims with national Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and state premier Armin Laschet.

There was no evidence of any link to Islamist militancy and the suspect was not a refugee, Reul said.

German Minister of Interior Horst Seehofer arrives at the site where on April 7 a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

The senior public prosecutor in Muenster, Elke Adomeit, said the perpetrator, who German media named as Jens R., was known to police for making threats, damaging property, a hit-and-run traffic accident, and fraud.

"All proceedings (against him) were discontinued," Adomeit said.

Muenster police chief Hans-Joachim Kuhlisch said investigators had searched four apartments overnight belonging to the man, who was 48.

Flowers are seen on the site where on April 7 a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

"You will understand that with four apartments - two in eastern Germany, two in Muenster - we can't now say conclusively that we won't find anything," he said.

However, investigators found no signs of a political motive in their initial searches of the apartments and of several cars and a container belonging to the man, Kuhlisch said.

Flowers are seen on the site where on April 7 a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

"COWARDLY AND BRUTAL"

In Berlin in December 2016, a Tunisian whose request for asylum was turned down and who had links to Islamist militants hijacked a truck and ploughed into a crowded marketplace. Twelve people, including the man driving the truck when it was hijacked, were killed.

Police said on Sunday they were still investigating possible motives and forensic investigators were scouring the scene of the attack for clues.

People mourn in front of the traditional guesthouse, Grosser Kiepenkerl, where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside the popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Seehofer described the attack as a "cowardly and brutal crime". He, Laschet and Reul laid flowers in central Muenster and paid their respects to the victims of the attack.

"We have again experienced that ... absolute security is unfortunately not possible," Seehofer said, adding that the government would do everything possible to protect citizens.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported in its online edition that the man, who it named as Jens R., resided some 2 km (1.2 miles) from the crime scene.

A girl lays flowers on the site where on April 7 a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

A 51-year-old woman from the Lueneburg area in northern Germany and a 65-year-old man from the Borken area near Muenster were killed.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement she was "deeply shaken". In the months prior to the Berlin assault, Germany suffered a number of small-scale Islamist militant attacks, which some linked to Merkel's decision in 2015 to open the country's borders to an influx of migrants, many of them refugees from conflicts in the Middle East.

Saturday's attack in Muenster came a year to the day of a truck attack in Stockholm in which a suspected Islamist militant sympathiser links killed five people.

A man is surrounded by the media as he mourns on the site where on April 7 a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Jane Merriman)

Firefighters of the city of Muenster clean the area in front of the traditional Grosser Kiepenkerl guesthouse where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside its restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Street cleaners sweep in front of the traditional guesthouse "Grosser Kiepenkerl", where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside the popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

A police investigator makes notes in front of the traditional guesthouse "Grosser Kiepenkerl", where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside the popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Police carry restaurant tables in front of the traditional guesthouse "Grosser Kiepenkerl", where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside the popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Police block a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7 2018. Muenster Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Staff

Police stands guard in a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

Police vehicles and fire engines in a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

Police block a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7 2018. REUTERS/Elke Ahlswede

People walk near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/NonstopNews

Special police gather in a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

Police block a street near a place where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster, Germany, April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler