German rock festival resumes after 'terrorist threat' proves false

GERMANY’S BIGGEST ROCK festival will resume after being disrupted by fears of a possible “terrorist threat” which have proved to be unfounded, the organisers said today.

Police told AFP searches at the three-day Rock am Ring, held near the southwestern city of Koblenz, were over.

Some 90,000 people are expected to attend the event, which continues tomorrow.

“After a series of intensive searches across the site the fears of an imminent danger were not confirmed,” the organisers said.

“The police gave the go-ahead” for the festival to restart, organisers said.

The festival was evacuated yesterday evening after Koblenz police said they were in possession of “concrete elements, in the light of which a possible terrorist threat cannot be ruled out”.

Manchester 

Security for the festival had already been stepped up, with an additional 1,200 staff, in response to 22 May Manchester bombing which occurred after a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

Last year’s Rock am Ring programme was curtailed by violent storms in which dozens of people were injured by lightning.

The country remains on high alert after a jihadist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin on 19 December. Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian, hijacked a truck, killed its Polish driver and ploughed the vehicle through the market, claiming 11 more lives and wounding dozens.

Read: German rock festival evacuated over ‘terrorist threat’

Read: Police arrest 24-year-old man in connection with Manchester bombing