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For the first time, the Theresienwiese, the open space that hosts the Oktoberfest until October 3, is fenced off.
Large bags are banned and 600 police officers are permanently on duty instead of the usual 500. Video surveillance has also been boosted.
"We have already noticed that people's sense of security has deteriorated. So we want to show that with more officers we are ready," Munich's deputy police chief Werner Feiler said Saturday.
Organisers are worried that security concerns will mean fewer people will come to the festival this year.
In 2015, when Bavaria received record numbers of migrants, some 5.9 million people came to the Oktoberfest, 400,000 fewer than in 2014.
In July of this year, teenager David Ali Sonboly, a German-Iranian, shot dead nine people and injured 35 in a shopping centre before killing himself.
Four days earlier, a 17-year-old asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a train in Bavaria, injuring five people. He was believed to be a "lone wolf" Afghan or Pakistani inspired by the Islamic State group.
Also in July, 15 people were wounded when a Syrian national who had been refused asylum in Germany blew himself up outside a music festival.
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Large bags are banned and 600 police officers are permanently on duty instead of the usual 500. Video surveillance has also been boosted.
"We have already noticed that people's sense of security has deteriorated. So we want to show that with more officers we are ready," Munich's deputy police chief Werner Feiler said Saturday.
Organisers are worried that security concerns will mean fewer people will come to the festival this year.
In 2015, when Bavaria received record numbers of migrants, some 5.9 million people came to the Oktoberfest, 400,000 fewer than in 2014.
In July of this year, teenager David Ali Sonboly, a German-Iranian, shot dead nine people and injured 35 in a shopping centre before killing himself.
Four days earlier, a 17-year-old asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a train in Bavaria, injuring five people. He was believed to be a "lone wolf" Afghan or Pakistani inspired by the Islamic State group.
Also in July, 15 people were wounded when a Syrian national who had been refused asylum in Germany blew himself up outside a music festival.
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