Munich — Police in Munich exchanged hearth with a person in an space close to a museum on town’s Nazi-era historical past and the Israeli Consulate Thursday, leaving the suspect, recognized as an 18-year-old Austrian nationwide, fatally wounded.
In keeping with police spokesperson Andreas Franken, officers observed an individual carrying a “lengthy gun” within the Karolinenplatz space, close to downtown Munich, at round 9 a.m. There was then an alternate of pictures wherein the suspect was fatally wounded, however there was no indication that anybody else was harm, Franken mentioned.
The person, who was carrying an outdated make of firearm with a repeating mechanism, died on the scene. Bavaria’s high safety official, state Inside Minister Joachim Herrmann, mentioned the suspect had opened hearth at police and so they returned hearth.
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Thursday marked 52 years because the assault by Palestinian militants on the Israeli delegation on the 1972 Munich Olympics, which ended with the demise of 11 Israeli group members, a West German police officer and 5 of the assailants. Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder mentioned there was “a horrible suspicion” that case was linked to the date marking that assault on Israeli athletes in 1972.
Austria’s Commonplace newspaper and the Spiegel information outlet in Germany reported that the suspect had been investigated for Islamic extremism, however the Munich police didn’t verify the experiences.
Police mentioned there was no proof of every other suspects being related to the incident. They elevated their presence within the metropolis, Germany’s third-biggest, however mentioned that they had no indication of incidents at every other areas or of every other suspects.
5 officers have been on the scene on the time of the taking pictures, however police deployed to the realm in drive after the incident. Franken mentioned he had no additional particulars on the suspect or on his firearm.
Israel’s Overseas Ministry mentioned the consulate in Munich was closed when the taking pictures occurred for a memorial occasion to mark the Olympics assault and that no consulate workers have been harm. 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 staff have been unhurt.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog mentioned he had spoken along with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, writing in a social media publish that “collectively we expressed our shared condemnation and horror on the terror assault this morning close to the Israeli consulate in Munich.”
Talking at an unrelated information convention in Berlin, German Inside Minister Nancy Faeser described Thursday’s taking pictures as “a critical incident” however mentioned she did not wish to speculate on what had occurred. She reiterated that “the safety of Jewish and Israeli amenities has the very best precedence.”
Germany, together with different Western European nations, have grappled with an increase in antisemitism for a number of years. A gunman who had railed in opposition to Jews opened hearth outdoors a synagogue within the German metropolis of Halle on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, in 2022, killing two individuals.
As CBS Information correspondent Chris Livesay reported in July, practically 40% of the antisemitic incidents reported worldwide throughout 2023 have been in Europe, and there was a spike after the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas sparked the continued battle with Israel in Gaza. In Germany, experiences of antisemitic incidents practically doubled final yr, whereas within the U.Ok., they greater than doubled and in France, they practically quadrupled.
Livesay reported that the sharp rise in such incidents in Europe was driving some Jews to desert their lives on the continent and transfer to Israel, regardless of that nation being engaged in an energetic battle.
