Anja Gooder
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – German police shot and killed one man during a shootout on Thursday near the Israeli consulate and Nazi history museum in Munich, German Interior Minister Joachim Hermann said.
“Police intervention thwarted the perpetrator,” Hermann told reporters. A police spokesman in the Bavarian state capital said the man was in possession of a “long-barreled gun”, which turned out to be an old rifle.
The attack came on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympic attack, in which Palestinian militants killed 11 Israeli athletes. The motive of the gunman in Thursday’s attack was not immediately clear, but Hellman said police would try to determine whether the attack was linked to the anniversary.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the consulate would be closed on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the massacre and that no consulate staff were injured in the incident.
The museum and institute, which focuses on the history of the Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 to 1945, is located near the Israeli consulate in Munich’s Maxvorstadt district.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faser described the shootout as a serious incident and said “the protection of Israeli facilities is the top priority.”
The shooting comes at a polarised time in Germany’s political climate: On Sunday, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to win local elections since World War Two.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken to his German counterpart.
“We express our shared condemnation and horror at this morning’s terrorist attack,” Herzog wrote on X, adding that on the day of commemoration of the Olympic massacre, “terrorists driven by hate have come and tried to murder innocent people once again.”
