An explosion had occurred in the “immediate vicinity” of a German migrant reception centre operated by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) within the past hour, according to reports.

Germany’s Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio) reports an explosion in Zirndorf, a small town near Munich. The so-called device appears to have been a suitcase stuffed with aerosol cans.

It is reported burning remains of a suitcase was found in a garden and “several Arab-looking men” were seen fleeing from the scene. No motive is known.

A police spokesman said there had been an operation after the explosion, and heavily armed police and dog patrol units have been seen deployed to the area. Police explosive experts have been able to determine that “an explosive device was detonated”, but what precisely is unclear.

The explosion took place approximately 200 meters away from the reception centre, a government facility where newly arrived migrants are housed while their details are being processed, and before they are moved elsewhere.

No casualties have been reported.

Bavaria has been, along with North-Rhine Westphalia an area which has featured predominantly in news reports about terror attacks and migrant crime over the course of the European migrant crisis. Over the past few weeks it has seen a failed suicide bombing in Ansbach where the would-be terrorist blew himself up after failing to get into a music concert. Nearby Munich, the capital of Bavaria saw a teen who has been described as an “Iranian-German” went on a gun rampage in the city mall, and days before that Bavarian town Würzburg saw an Afghan axe attack on a city train.

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