Police shot and killed a suspected terrorist near the Israeli consulate on Thursday.
A shootout ensued when police officers spotted the suspect, an 18-year-old Austrian citizen who was carrying a carbine with an attached bayonet, next to the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, which is close to the Israeli consulate, the police said.
The gunman was shot and later died from his wounds.
An investigation into the incident and the gunman’s motive was ongoing, Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder said, adding that police suspect it was connected to Thursday’s 52nd anniversary of the Munich massacre at the Olympics in 1972.Shots fired outside Israeli consulate in Munich #München, Germany https://t.co/qetzHEz8AP pic.twitter.com/WQTqjif0m6
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Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor said he had been apprised of the situation by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who said the gunman had a radical Islamist background, he said.“The events in Munich show that Islamists are a threat to us all,” he wrote in a post on social media. “They interpret a misunderstood sense of tolerance as weakness. We must now do everything we can to effectively combat Islamism. The hate preachers in the background must feel that we are watching them. Those who incite 18-year-olds to commit terrorism must not go unpunished.”
Consulate was closed for a ceremony to commemorate the 1972 Munich Massacre
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the consulate had been closed for a ceremony to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the Munich massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. No workers at the Israeli consulate had been harmed in the incident, it said.Söder said the security infrastructure and law-enforcement officers had proven themselves.“Fortunately, no innocent people were injured in the terrible attack in front of the Israeli Consulate General,” he said. “The protection of Jewish life and the protection of the country and its people are our priority. Jewish institutions are particularly protected in Bavaria.”Prosor said the attack had occurred on the same day as the Munich Massacre, in which German officers had also been slain, but “courageous police officers stopped the attacker in time and prevented anything worse from happening. Our thanks go to the emergency services in Munich.”“The victims of 1972 were actually supposed to be remembered today – but this commemoration has now been canceled,” he wrote. “Germans and Israelis are both affected by terror, so we must fight against terror together.”Talya Lador, Israel’s consul general to southern Germany, said the incident had demonstrated the danger of rising antisemitism.“It is important that the general public raises its voice against it,” she wrote in a post on social media.President Isaac Herzog spoke with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and they both condemned the “terror attack” near the Munich consulate.“On the day our brothers and sisters in Munich were set to stand in remembrance of our brave athletes murdered by terrorists 52 years ago, a hate-fueled terrorist came and once again sought to murder innocent people,” Herzog wrote in a post on social media. “Together we stand strong in the face of terror. Together we will overcome.”Central Council of Jews in Germany president Josef Schuster said he was shocked by the incident, especially since the gunman was believed to have been motivated by Islamism. Only last week, three people had been killed and eight wounded by a jihadist in Germany, he said. On Saturday, ISIS claimed responsibility for Friday’s terrorist stabbing attack by a 26-year-old Syrian man, Reuters reported.