Merkel refuses to reverse refugee policy after attacks

Germany will not change its refugee policy in response to recent attacks involving asylum seekers, Chancellor Angela Merkel said. She said the attackers "wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need. We firmly reject this".

She announced a range of new security measures in the speech, including new measures on information sharing, deciphering internet communications and arms sales on the internet.

Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to hold the press conference in Berlin, described the recent attacks as "shocking, oppressive and depressing," but said it did not indicate that authorities had lost control.

"Taboos of civilisation are being broken," she said, referring to recent terror attacks in France, Belgium, Turkey, the US, as well as Germany.

She repeated her rallying cry "we can do this," which she used in 2015 after opening Germany's borders to millions of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. The policy saw more than 1 million refugees and migrants enter the country last year.

"I am still convinced today that "we can do it", she said. "It is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalisation. We have already achieved very, very much in the last 11 months".

It follows two recent terror attacks by refugees in Bavaria, southern Germany. On 19 July an Afghan asylum seeker seriously injured two people in an axe and knife attack on a train near Wuezberg before being shot dead by police. Days later a Syrian man who was due to be deported injured 15 in a suicide bomb attack near a music festival in Ansbach.

Both pledged allegiance to terrorist group Islamic State in videos.

A 17-year-old who prosecutors believe had far-right sympathies killed nine in a shooting spree in Munich on Friday.