BERLIN - Authorities temporarily closed Munich's Oktoberfest celebration in response to a bomb threat Wednesday.
The flagship festival reopened at 5.30 p.m. local time, following a police search of the Oktoberfest site for explosives. Local media reported that visitors ran through the gates to the Wiesn - as the festival is locally known - as if nothing had even happened.
The closure was prompted by a bomb threat letter, which police initially said contained a "nonspecific threat of explosives related to the Oktoberfest."
According to officials, the letter was written by the suspect in a fire that occurred early Wednesday in Munich's northern Lerchenau district.
The suspect, a 57-year-old man living in Starnberg, about 15 miles southwest of Munich, allegedly started the blaze and planted booby traps because of a family dispute and then fled the scene. Police pursued the suspect before he killed himself with a homemade weapon near Lake Lerchenau, authorities said.
The man was carrying a backpack with an explosive device that had to be defused, police said. The letter prompting the closure of Oktoberfest was dropped into a neighbor's mailbox, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Wednesday evening.
Police said the suspect's 81-year-old mother was found in front of the house with a gunshot wound to her arm and his 21-year-old daughter was rescued from the first floor when the house was already ablaze. Both were transferred to a hospital for treatment. Police presume that a body found inside the house is that of the suspect's 90-year-old father. Neighbors also had to leave their homes, authorities said.
Herrmann stressed there was no sign of a radical motive, calling it "exclusively a matter of these internal family matters." He said the suspect had questioned his paternity of the 21-year-old rescued from the burning house, but a test confirmed he was the father.
With their search complete by late afternoon, authorities said the festival, and beer taps, could reopen.
"The police have reviewed the situation and have given the all-clear," Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter posted on Instagram late Wednesday afternoon. He thanked the emergency services for their work.
"I'm pleased that, from this evening, we can enjoy Oktoberfest together again," Reiter said.
The entrances to Oktoberfest were closed for 30 minutes Saturday because of overcrowding. Videos posted on social media showed revelers packed tightly between beer tents, unable to move in any direction.
As of Sunday, festival organizers estimated that some 3.5 million people had visited Oktoberfest this year, down slightly from 3.6 million at the same point last year.
The two-week festival, which kicked off on Sept. 20, dates back to the October 1810 wedding festivities of Prince Regent Ludwig of Bavaria, later King Ludwig I, and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Most beer tents at Oktoberfest, billed as the world's largest folk festival, open daily from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. - and from 9 a.m. on weekends - with the first mass, a one-liter glass of Bavarian beer, hitting the tables by midmorning. Inside the vast tents, some of which hold more than 8,000 guests, Wiesn-goers feast on roast chicken and pretzels and belt out beer-hall classics.
The festival routine tends to fall into two shifts: a calmer crowd by day, followed by a high-energy evening scene as after-work partyers flood in. Beyond the beer halls, the festival grounds are filled with parades, folk dancing and a sprawling carnival of roller coasters, rides and games. Most visitors attend in traditional Bavarian dress, donning lederhosen or dirndl dresses.
Before the festival reopened Wednesday evening, spokesmen for the Wiesn hosts, Peter Inselkammer and Christian Schottenhamel, told German news agency, DPA, that visitors affected by the closure will no doubt face many practical questions, but they could be rest assured: Tokens for beer and chicken remain valid and can still be redeemed in the coming days.