The 12-year-old German-Iraqi boy, who was reported to be the perpetrator, was directed by an ISIL supporter to build two nail bombs and plant them at the local Christmas market and near a shopping centre.
[1][2] After a first attempt failed at the Christmas market on 26 November when the bomb did not explode, the boy tried a second time on 5 December near the mall and the town hall of Ludwigshafen[citation needed] He was reported to have been radicalised or instructed by an unidentified ISIS member.
The German federal prosecutor declined to comment on the ISIS stories and announced an investigation into his motives.
The device contained “pyrotechnic material” believed to have been extracted from fireworks and sparklers and tests revealed that the mix was combustible, but not explosive.
[4] On 13 April 2018, an Islamic State supporter was sentenced in Vienna to nine years in prison for instigating the crime and for planning another attack on the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany along with a 15-year-old girl married to him under Islamic law.