German police shot and killed a man who opened fire on them with a vintage rifle near the Israeli consulate in Munich on Thursday in what they treated as a foiled attack on the diplomatic mission.
Authorities identified the gunman, who was killed in a hail of police bullets, as an 18-year-old Austrian man but did not immediately comment on media reports that he was a known Islamist extremist.
German news site Spiegel Online and Austrian media said that he had been investigated last year for allegedly spreading Islamic State group propaganda, but that the case had been dropped.
While the motive was not yet known, Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder said “there is a terrible suspicion” the case was linked to Thursday’s anniversary of the deadly 1972 attack on Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich by Palestinian militants.
The shootout around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) sparked a mass mobilisation of about 500 police in downtown Munich, where residents and office workers huddled indoors as sirens wailed and a helicopter flew above.
Video footage published by German media showed dramatic scenes in which police commandos in body armour and helmets took cover from gunshots, then unleashed a barrage of bullets.
Police said five police officers fired at the man, who died on the spot with his weapon beside him — a rifle that pictures showed was fitted with a bayonet.
German authorities were treating the incident as a “possible attack on an Israeli institution”, said Bavarian state interior minister Joachim Herrmann.
Herrmann also noted that Thursday marked “the 52nd anniversary of the terrible attack on the Israeli team during the Olympic Games” of 1972.
Eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed at the Games after gunmen from the Palestinian Black September group broke into the Olympic village and took them hostage.
‘Horror at terror attack’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X that he had spoken with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“Together we expressed our shared condemnation and horror at the terror attack this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich,” he said.
“On the day our brothers and sisters in Munich were set to stand in remembrance of our brave athletes murdered by terrorists 52 years ago, a hate-fuelled terrorist came and once again sought to murder innocent people.”
Herzog thanked the German security services for their “swift action” and said that “together we stand strong in the face of terror”.
A memorial service for the victims of the hostage-taking in Fuerstenfeldbruck, where the Israeli athletes were shot, was cancelled, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
The exchange of gunfire sparked panic and a widespread police lockdown in a central area of the Bavarian state capital, near the Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism.
After securing the scene, Munich police wrote on X that there were “no indications of any other suspects” and that no one else had been wounded.
Soeder, the state premier, thanked police and voiced relief.
“Munich held its breath for a time, there were moments of great fear about what could happen,” he said at a press conference.
“Luckily it turned out well in the end, no one was hurt and only the perpetrator was eliminated.”
He also said that “the protection of Jewish institutions is of central importance to us”.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had earlier called it a “serious incident” and said the location was a “bitter pill to swallow”, also noting that “the protection of Jewish and Israeli institutions is of the highest priority”.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after the October 7 attack, many Jewish communities worldwide have been targeted in attacks and hate crimes.
This is a special cause of concern in Germany, which in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust has committed itself to steadfast support for Israel.
A record number of 5,164 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded in 2023, up from 2,641 the year before, according to German internal intelligence.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany estimates that there are around 100,000 practising Jews in the country and around 100 synagogues.
AFP
