German police shot dead a gunman on Thursday who had opened fire at them near central Munich’s Nazi era documentation center and the Israeli consulate, the Bavarian interior minister said.
“Police responded with armed force against the perpetrator, who was carrying a rifle and had fired a number of shots,” said state interior minister Joachim Herrmann, adding that the gunman had died of his wounds.
“There are currently no reports of any other people injured” and “no indications of any other suspects,” German police said.
According to police, the suspect is an 18-year old Austrian man.
The police did not specify any other details, including whether the incident was believed to be related to the nearby historical center or diplomatic mission.
The Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism is located on the site of the former Nazi party headquarters and close to Israel’s consulate in the southern German city.
Media pointed out that the incident took place on the anniversary of the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games at the hands of Palestinian militants.
German authorities are treating a shooting near Munich’s Israeli consulate on Thursday as a “possible attack on an Israeli institution”, said state interior minister Joachim Herrmann.
The gunman, who was shot dead by police after he had opened fire with a vintage rifle, was an 18-year-old Austrian man, added Munich police chief Thomas Hampel, speaking at a joint press conference.
A police helicopter was in the sky above the area, and the sound of police sirens blared through the streets.
The Bild daily showed pictures of armed police wearing helmets and body armor in the downtown area.
Police advised the public that a large number of police were “on their way to the site of operations in the area of the NS Documentation Center.”
With AFP
