A dead gardener is believed to be behind a series of bomb attacks that killed a doctor and left two other victims including a toddler injured.
German police are urging anyone who had a conflict with Bernhard Graumann to be on their guard for secretly planted explosive devices after a doctor was killed and a mother and daughter were injured by bombs apparently left behind by him.
He is suspected of setting booby traps before his death, including a bomb that killed the 64-year-old GP in a nearby town on Friday.
Graumann is also thought to have rigged a piece of firewood that exploded when a woman put it in her stove, injuring her and her four-year-old daughter on Sunday.
According to police, Graumann secretly planted several homemade bombs before he died so he could take revenge on his enemies from beyond the grave.
Bernhard Graumann’s house in Mehlingen where he was found dead in his bed on Friday. That same say an explosive device killed a doctor in a nearby town and a rigged piece of firewood injured a mother and her young child
The general practice of Dr Joern K. where he was killed when a carefully hidden explosive device went off when he touched it in the town of Enkenbach-Alsenborn
The 59-year-old landscape gardener was found dead in his bed in the small town of Mehlingen near Kaiserslautern on Friday.
Police would not comment on reports he had killed himself until an autopsy was complete and the results were made available.
It is suspected Graumann may have poisoned himself, police said.
During a search of Graumann’s house, weapons and explosives were found, and officers added the dead man had experience using gunpowder because he was an active member of a medieval war games enactment society.
German media report Graumann was known to be involved in recreating antique firearms that use gunpowder.
In a search of Graumann’s home, investigators found black powder and other items that were ‘in violation of weapons and explosives laws’, police said.
A statement by police added: ‘It cannot be ruled out that the deceased made other preparations that could endanger further people.’
A note on the door saying the general practice of Dr Joern K. is closed due to his death, which happened on Friday
Flowers set at the house of Dr Joern K., who died in an explosion by a booby trap outside his GP surgery in Enkenbach-Alsenborn, Germany, on Tuesday
According to the police, Dr Joern K. picked up a carefully planted bomb, which was not recognisable as an explosive device, in front of his general practice in the town of Enkenbach-Alsenborn.
When the doctor, who was known to have had disagreements with Graumann, touched the bomb it exploded, killing him instantly.
Two victims from the nearby town of Otterberg were also injured by one of the self-made explosive devices.
The mother and daughter were hit by shrapnel after a bomb hidden in firewood for their stove exploded.
The little girl is still in hospital – no details were shared by authorities about the extent of her injuries.
A police spokesman said: ‘Graumann had a personal or business connection with the victims. Graumann was not in a good relationship with the people. In both cases conflicts had occurred in the past.
‘The investigation showed that in both cases Bernhard Graumann is suspicious.
‘People who have had a problematic private or business relationship with Graumann are urged to contact the police immediately.’
Udo Gehring of the Kaiserslautern public prosecutor’s office said there maybe more explosive devices hidden by Graumann
Udo Gehring of the Kaiserslautern public prosecutor’s office thinks there might be more explosives hidden.
Gehring added: ‘It is all about clearing up the cases around the explosives. What is behind it? Might there be something else behind it? How did it come to it? And most of all, whether there might be more explosives out there.’
Westpfalz police spokesman Bernhard Christian Erfort said today officers received more than 60 calls to a hotline since it was established on Monday, but no more bombs were found.
Graumann was married and had two children but reportedly lived a very reclusive life.
According to unconfirmed reports, Graumann was jailed in the 1980s for the attempted murder of the lover of his former girlfriend, although the public prosecutor’s office did not confirm this.
Investigations into the explosions are ongoing, police said.