MUNICH — Police in Munich exchanged hearth with a gunman close to the Israeli Consulate in Munich on Thursday, fatally wounding him. Authorities mentioned they imagine he was planning to assault the consulate on the anniversary of the assault on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Nobody else was damage within the shootout shortly after 9 a.m. in an space close to the consulate and a museum on town’s Nazi-era historical past. Officers had been alerted to an individual carrying a gun within the Karolinenplatz space, close to downtown Munich, and returned hearth when he shot at them. The suspect, who was carrying an outdated lengthy gun with a bayonet connected to it, died on the scene.
5 officers had been on the scene on the time the gunfire erupted. Police rapidly deployed about 500 officers to the world.
Police mentioned the gunman was an 18-year-old from Austria, however investigators had been nonetheless trying into his motive. They didn’t give additional particulars on the suspect, who left a automotive close to the scene, besides to say that he lived in Austria.
“We’ve to imagine that an assault on the Israeli Consulate presumably was deliberate early right now,” Bavaria’s prime safety official, state Inside Minister Joachim Herrmann, advised reporters on the scene. “It’s apparent that, if somebody parks right here within reach of the Israeli Consulate … then begins capturing, it most likely isn’t a coincidence.”
Prosecutors and police mentioned in an announcement later Thursday they at the moment imagine the plan was for “a terrorist assault, additionally with respect to the consulate of the state of Israel,” and that they’re nonetheless investigating the person’s motive.
Thursday was the 52nd anniversary of the assault by Palestinian militants on the Israeli delegation on the 1972 Munich Olympics, which ended with the dying of 11 Israeli staff members, a West German police officer and 5 of the assailants.
“There could also be a connection—that have to be cleared up,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder mentioned.
Munich police mentioned there was no proof of any extra suspects linked to the capturing.
In neighboring Austria’s Salzburg province, police mentioned the suspected assailant, an Austrian with Bosnian roots, had come to authorities’ consideration in February 2023. They mentioned that, following a “harmful menace” in opposition to fellow college students coupled with bodily hurt, he had additionally been accused of involvement in a terror group.
There was a suspicion that he had turn out to be religiously radicalized, was energetic on-line in that context and was eager about explosives and weapons, a police assertion mentioned, however prosecutors closed an investigation in April 2023.
Nonetheless, authorities did concern a ban on him proudly owning weapons till no less than the start of 2028. Police mentioned he had not come to their consideration since.
Israel’s Overseas Ministry mentioned the consulate was closed Thursday resulting from a memorial ceremony for the 1972 assault and none of its workers was damage. The close by Munich Documentation Middle for the Historical past of Nationwide Socialism, which opened in 2015 and explores town’s previous because the birthplace of the Nazi motion, additionally mentioned all of its workers had been unhurt.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog mentioned he spoke with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He wrote on the social media platform X that “collectively we expressed our shared condemnation and horror” on the capturing.
The pinnacle of Germany’s fundamental Jewish group, Josef Schuster, mentioned “there may have been a disaster in Munich right now” and thanked police for intervening rapidly.
Söder and German Inside Minister Nancy Faeser reiterated their robust dedication to defending Jewish and Israeli amenities.
—Geir Moulson reported from Berlin. Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report from Berlin.
