German police shoot dead a gunman near the Israeli Consulate in Munich | El Diario Vasco

German police shot dead a man in central Munich on Thursday after he had opened fire on several police officers near the National Socialist Documentation Centre and a few metres from the Israeli Consulate General, an official spokesman said.

The suspect is believed to have arrived at the scene with a long weapon and fired at a police security booth in front of the National Socialist Documentation Centre. The officers, of which there were five guards outside the building, responded with gunfire and shot the attacker dead almost instantly.

“Police forces observed a person who appeared to be armed. The officers used their weapons, shot and wounded the person,” Munich police said in a first report via the X platform. The identity of the attacker is currently unknown and those responsible for the investigation are urgently trying to find out, as well as the motives for what could be a foiled attack.

The area was immediately cordoned off by a large police force, while special agents arrived for immediate intervention and a helicopter flew overhead. Police stressed that the attacker apparently acted alone and that there was no indication that he had any accomplices.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann said the suspect fired several shots without hitting anyone before the officers present responded with their weapons. The attacker died from his serious injuries, Hermann said.

«Serious incident»

“This is a serious incident,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who refused to speculate pending the results of the investigation and referred to the statements of her Bavarian colleague and the police.

The incident coincides with the anniversary of the 1972 bombing of the Munich Olympics. Palestinian terrorists then murdered eleven Israeli athletes. On September 5, two members of the Jewish delegation were killed in the Olympic Village, while nine others were taken hostage. Some eighteen hours later, an attempt by the German police to free them ended in tragedy and the death of all the hostages, one police officer and five Palestinian terrorists.

The Palestinian command demanded the release of 200 prisoners in Israel, as well as the release of the founders of the German terrorist organisation Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. On the occasion of this anniversary, the Israeli Consulate General in the Bavarian capital was practically empty on Thursday at the time of the attack, as its staff had attended a commemorative event in memory of the victims.

“Our office, which is located next to the National Socialist Documentation Centre in the centre of Munich, is surrounded by police. Our employees are safe. At exactly 9.10am, loud bangs were heard. At least a dozen shots were fired. We don’t know anything more. A large police presence has now taken to the streets,” Benedijkt Franke, vice-president of the Munich Security Conference, told the tabloid ‘Bild’.