European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
Munich Shooting Near Israeli Consulate on 1972 Olympics Attack Anniversary
newsweek – Police in Munich shot dead a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm Thursday near a museum that focuses on the city’s Nazi-era history and the Israeli Consulate.The shooting took place on the 52nd anniversary of the Sept. 5 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack.
According to a police spokesperson, officers noticed a person carrying a “long gun” in the Karolinenplatz area, near downtown Munich, at around 9 a.m local time.There was then an exchange of shots in which the suspect was seriously wounded, but there no was no indication that anyone else was hurt, Andreas Franken told reporters. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann later said the suspect had died of their injuries.
There was no immediate information on the suspect’s identity or on any motive, Franken said.According to a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), police emphasized that there was no evidence of additional suspects and no indication of broader threats in the city.
Five officers were at the scene at the time; police deployed to the area in force after the shooting.Israel’s Foreign Ministry reported that the consulate in Munich was closed at the time of the shooting and confirmed that no consulate staff were injured.
The nearby Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, which opened in 2015 and explores the city’s past as the birthplace of the Nazi movement, also said all of its employees were unharmed in Thursday’s shooting.
In 1972, the Palestinian militant group Black September orchestrated a deadly attack during the Munich Olympics. Eight militants stormed the Olympic Village, killing two members of the Israeli Olympic team and taking nine others hostage. All nine hostages were later killed during a failed rescue operation.
Speaking at an unrelated news conference in Berlin, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described Thursday’s shooting as “a serious incident” but said she didn’t want to speculate on what had happened.
She reiterated that “the protection of Jewish and Israeli facilities has the highest priority.”In response to the shooting, Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, expressing “shared condemnation and horror” over the event, according to a post on X by Herzog.
