Germany: Munich police shoot suspect near Israeli Consulate

Police in Munich reported a large operation in the city center, saying officers had shot and hit a suspicious individual, early on Thursday. The man later died.

"A large operation is currently running in the area of Briennerstrasse and Karolinenplatz. We're on site with multiple officers," Munich police said on social media. 

Police followed up with more details soon after. 

"Police officers fired shots at a suspicious person in the area of Karolinenplatz, the person was struck in this process," they said. "A wide area around the operation is sealed off." 

Person was carrying firearm in plain sight: police 

"Police officers saw a person, who was apparently carrying a firearm," police said roughly an hour after their initial post. "The officers employed their service weapons, the person was hit and wounded." 

While initial police statements online all referred to a "person," police referred to the suspect as a man speaking to the media. 

Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann later said that the suspect had died of his wounds. He said the man's identity was still being investigated, and also that the suspect had fired shots at police first. 

"He shot directly at the police officers, they returned fire," Herrmann said. 

A police spokesman said that five officers had been involved in the exchange of fire, and that the man had been using a long-barreled weapon.

Videos circulating online, that DW was able to verify, showed a younger male carrying what appeared to be quite an old rifle fitted with a bayonet before the exchange of fire with police.

The Consulate General of Israel in Munich is located on the Karolinenplatz roundabout, and a Nazi-era museum, the NS-Dokumentationszentrum, is next door. It wasn't immediately clear if there was a connection. Police cautioned against "speculation and false information," saying avoiding spreading this would help their work. 

Interior Minister Faeser thanks police in first response

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was asked about the case during a press conference on a different issue in Berlin on Thursday. She said she did not want to speculate too hastily but described it as a "serious incident." 

She thanked Munich police for the response and told reporters that "the protection of Jewish and Israeli facilities, as you know, has the highest priority." 

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the Munich Consulate was closed at the time, because of a memorial service on the anniversary of the attack on Israel's Olympic athletes during the 1972 Games in Munich. No employees were hurt amid the incident, it said.

Germany, like many countries in Europe, has been on alert about potential security risks around Israeli facilities amid the conflict in Gaza and the wider tensions in the Middle East since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. 

Israeli President Herzog condemns 'terrorist attack' 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote online that he had discussed the incident with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. 

"In my conversation now with the president of Germany, my friend Frank-Walter Steinmeier, we expressed joint condemnation of the terrorist attack that took place this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich," he said. 

"On the day set in Germany to mark the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the Munich Olympics 52 years ago by wrongful terrorists, a terrorist filled with hatred sought to murder innocents again in Munich," Herzog said. He thanked security services for their rapid response and said "together we must stand against terrorism and defeat it." 

Media reports point to teenage Islamist from Austria

First reports on the identity of the man started to emerge in Germany and Austria just after lunch. 

The joint investigative reporting team of the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and broadcasters WDR and MDR, typically reliable and with good connections to German security services, reported that the suspect was an Austrian citizen born in 2006. 

Similarly, Germany's Der Spiegel, on its website, and Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that he was an 18-year-old Austrian national. They also said he was already known to security services for Islamist tendencies, and was a resident of the state of Salzburg that borders Bavaria and Germany.  

Witness tells DW he heard 'two loud bangs,' then what sounded like a 'firefight'

DW spoke to a man who works near the site, Christian Werner, who said that from his workplace he heard "two loud bangs, then a salvo, a firefight ... which sounded like more than one person was shooting." 

He said the sound came from across the street in the direction of the consulate. 

"Police arrived on the scene quickly, more and more kept arriving," he said. "They carried out searches. I went out to the trash cans outside, and was checked by a police officer who asked me to go back inside. They were heavily armed. Civilians were led away from the scene under police protection."

Werner also said, roughly two hours after the first announcements of an incident, that "there are now significantly fewer police at the scene." 

Police said just after midday, noting reports of some people hiding or barricading themselves in nearby buildings, "we can give the all-clear, there is no further danger to the public." 

However, they also said that officers were still on site, in particular gathering evidence and interviewing potential witnesses. "Therefore the restrictions on traffic remain in place," they said. 

msh/nm (AFP, dpa, Reuters, Polizei München)