Investigators search apartment of killed shooter

Nach dem Schusswechsel nahe dem israelischen Generalkonsulat in München gehen Ermittler von einem versuchten Terroranschlag des getöteten Schützen aus. Nach derzeitigen Erkenntnissen sehe man bei dem Angriff des mit einem Gewehr bewaffneten 18-jährigen Österreichers einen „Bezug zum Generalkonsulat des Staates Israel“, teilten Polizei und Generalstaatsanwaltschaft München mit.

Polizisten hatten am Donnerstagvormittag gegen 9 Uhr in der Maxvorstadt den mit einem älteren Karabiner samt Bajonett bewaffneten Mann entdeckt. Er schoss laut Bayerns Innenminister Joachim Herrmann gezielt auf die Polizisten, die das Feuer erwiderten. Fünf Beamte waren laut einem Polizeisprecher an dem Schusswechsel beteiligt.

Die Ermittlungen unter Federführung der Zentralstelle zur Bekämpfung von Extremismus und Terrorismus konzentrieren sich demnach auf das genaue Motiv des jungen Mannes. Er wurde bei dem Schusswechsel mit der Polizei schwer verletzt und starb noch am Ort. Infolge des Vorfalls waren in der Münchner Innenstadt rund 500 Polizisten im Einsatz, darunter auch Spezialkräfte. Abgesehen von dem Schützen wurde laut Polizei niemand verletzt.

“The background to the crime still needs to be clarified,” said Herrmann. However, “if someone parks here within sight of the Israeli Consulate General, then walks around the Consulate General with a gun and starts shooting,” that is “certainly or with high probability not a coincidence.”

Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder spoke of a serious suspicion in view of the simultaneous anniversary of the Olympic attack in Munich. “There may be a connection. It still needs to be clarified,” said the CSU politician near the crime scene.

In the terrorist attack at the Olympic Games in Munich on September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists shot two men and took nine hostages in the Olympic Village. Around 18 hours later, a rescue attempt ended with the deaths of the nine Israeli hostages, a police officer and five of the attackers.

According to the Austrian police, the young man from Salzburg was investigated last year on suspicion that he had become religiously radicalized and was interested in explosives and weapons. A weapons ban was imposed on the man with Bosnian roots.

The then 17-year-old had come to the attention of the authorities after threatening classmates and causing bodily harm. In this context, he was accused of involvement in a terrorist organization, it was said. According to information from the Austrian news agency APA, propaganda from the terrorist organization “Islamic State” was found on his cell phone. However, the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office closed the investigation in April 2023, police said. Since then, the 18-year-old has not come to the attention of the police again.

After the alleged attempted attack, his home in the Salzburg region was searched. Numerous officers went to Neumarkt am Wallersee to secure evidence and traces. A Salzburg police spokesman told the German Press Agency.

The 18-year-old had lived in Neumarkt with his parents. The house and the neighboring buildings were evacuated for safety reasons, said the police spokesman. In retrospect, however, it turned out that there was no danger.

Austria increased its own security measures following the incident. The state security agency DSN has already contacted the Israeli embassy and the Israeli religious community, said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. “The Austrian security authorities are in intensive contact with their German colleagues.”

Thanks came from all sides for the Munich police forces, including from Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD). “The quick and decisive reaction of the Munich police today stopped an attacker and possibly prevented a terrorist act of violence. We have great thanks and respect for the forces,” said Faeser.

Israel’s President Yitzhak Herzog spoke of a “terrorist attack this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich” and condemned the act. He thanked the German security services for their quick intervention, Herzog wrote on the X platform after a telephone conversation with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wrote on Platform X that the rapid reaction of the emergency services in Munich may have prevented something atrocitable from happening today. He said very clearly: “Anti-Semitism and Islamism have no place here.”

The President of the Israelite Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, said: “The feeling of insecurity, not only in the Jewish community, will become even more entrenched after this incident. The task for those politically responsible is therefore very clear: violent extremism must be pushed back out of public spaces; anything else would be the end of our open society.”

The Consulate General in Munich was closed at the time of the incident due to the commemoration of the anniversary of the Olympic attack, wrote the Consul General of the State of Israel for Southern Germany, Talya Lador-Fresher, on the X platform. “This event shows how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is. It is important that the general public raises its voice against it.”