GETTY CRACKDOWN: Security is expected to be stepped up for this year's Oktoberfest

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More than six million visitors from all over the world pour into the Bavarian city for the 16-day festival of folk culture, food and drink in late September and early October every year. But local officials, still reeling from last week's shopping centre shootings, the weekend's machete attack in Reutlingen and a suicide bombing near a music festival in the southern town of Ansbach, are on high alert and said a security crackdown was almost inevitable. Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said: "We are and we will continue to discuss security with the security services and the police and of course also talk about events like Oktoberfest.

GETTY CROWDS: More than six million visitors flock to Oktobefest each year

We might also have to consider banning backpacks. I think everyone will be understanding that we will have to think about taking such measures Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter

"For this we might also have to consider banning backpacks. And since Ansbach, I think everyone will be understanding that we will have to think about taking such measures. "We will discuss this together with the police and security services because it only makes sense to ban something that can be controlled and enforced. "But we need to realise that there is no absolute security anymore."

GETTY ALERT: Germany has suffered a spate of bloody attacks

Mr Reiter said it was "a really terrible time" for Germany and described the mood across the country as "deeply glum". He praised police and security services for the emergency response to the terrifying Munich attack when 18-year-old David Ali Sonboly, a German of Iranian descent, shot dead nine people before turning the gun on himself. He said: "I still believe it was a perfect operation, especially regarding the information policies when using social media, with which the most people could be reached. "That they got the tone of voice right without causing a panic is remarkable and we can only congratulate the police."

GETTY PATROL: Police on duty at last year's Oktoberfest

Explosion in Ansbach Mon, July 25, 2016 Ansbach explosion: Syrian asylum seeker killed by own bomb at German bar Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 10 Police secure an area after an explosion in Ansbach, near Nuremberg