Police in Germany said officers shot and killed a man with a long gun Thursday near the Israeli consulate in Munich, averting a likely terrorist attack on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.
Sources told the German newspaper BILD that the shooter drove up to the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, a museum of the city’s Nazi-era history about 200 feet from the consulate, and fired at police posts in front of the building. The officers then returned fire.
A video circulating online that appears to have been recorded from a nearby university building shows a man loading a historic infantry rifle, equipped with a bayonet, before firing it and then hiding behind a building. Police told the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung they are currently trying to authenticate the video, which at one point shows the man walking near the Israeli Consulate General.
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“Police officers spotted a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm,” the Polizei München said on X, adding the officers “used their service weapons, and the person was hit and injured. There are currently no reports of further injuries.”
Andreas Franken, a police spokesperson, confirmed the suspect exchanged fire with police and that he was seriously wounded. Five officers were at the scene, according to Franken.
A state minister confirmed the suspect died. Public broadcasters NDR and WDR reported the suspected shooter was an Austrian citizen born in 2006. Citing police sources, German news magazine Der Spiegel said the 18-year-old lived in the Salzburg region, drove to Munich by car, and was known to security authorities as an Islamist.
“We are working on the assumption of an attempted terrorist attack, also in connection with the Consulate General of Israel,” the Munich police and public prosecutors office said in a joint statement, noting they have yet to to determine the suspect’s motive.
“We are very grateful to [the Munich police],” said Talya Lador, the Israeli consul general to southern Germany. “This event shows how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is. It is important that the general public raises its voice against it.”
Lador noted the Consulate General was closed Thursday to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, when affiliates of the Palestinian militant group Black September killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and kidnapped nine others who were ultimately killed in a botched rescue attempt.
The hostage crisis marked the first time a terrorist attack reached a live global television audience, and it triggered tensions between West Germany and Israel over the latter’s perceived security failures and handling of the kidnappings.
The Munich attack also spurred several countries, including West Germany, the U.S., France, and the U.K., to form specialized counterterrorism units in their police or armed forces. A moment of silence was held in memory of those who died at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in advance of the 50th anniversary, 10 years after the International Olympic Committee controversially rejected holding one for the 40th anniversary during the 2012 London Games.
The police had earlier said, at 9:15 a.m. local time, that a major operation was underway in the area of Briennerstrasse and Karolinenplatz. The Consulate General of Israel in Munich is located off the Karolinenplatz roundabout, next to the Ben-Haim-Forschungszentrum, a research center that studies the history of Jewish music. The NS-Dokumentationszentrum is located on Briennerstrasse, immediately west of the roundabout.
Ronen Steinke, a journalist with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, shared a video taken by a local resident near the incident in which shots could be heard.
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, told journalists at a Berlin press conference that “the protection of Jewish and Israeli facilities has the highest priority” and thanked the Munich police.
