A SUSPECTED suitcase bomb has been detonated outside an immigration office near the German city of Nuremberg this afternoon.
German media said the explosion occurred near the Federal Office for Migration in Zirndorf, Bavaria, where newly arrived refugees are processed.
According to media reports, a suitcase packed with highly flammable aerosol canisters was detonated around 200 yards away from the building.
Armed officers were rushed to the scene and a police operation is ongoing, according to a police spokeswoman.
She added that witnesses heard a loud bang and discovered a burning suitcase on a footpath near the immigration centre.
German media reported that police carried out a raid just yards from the reception centre on Wednesday.
Witnesses reported how people fled the scene in panic as a huge bang ripped through the quiet neighbourhood.
The German interior ministry this afternoon described the explosion as “small” and said that nobody had been injured.
Bavaria, in southern Germany, has been the entry route for more than a million migrants and refugees who have flooded into the country over the last 18 months.