Germany: police kill suspect in exchange of fire near Israeli consulate in Munich

German police have shot dead a man in an exchange of fire near the Israeli Consulate and a Nazi history museum in Munich on Thursday, Reuters has reported. The announcement was made by state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.

“Due to the intervention of the police, the perpetrator was stopped,” Herrmann told reporters. A police spokesperson in the Bavarian state capital said that the man had a “long-barrelled gun” that turned out to be an old rifle.

The incident occurred on the anniversary of the 1972 attack at the Munich Olympics in which a group of Palestinians killed 11 Israeli athletes. The motive of the gunman in Thursday’s incident was not known immediately, but Herrmann said that police would try to clarify whether it had any link to the anniversary.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the consulate was closed on Thursday for a commemoration of that massacre and confirmed that no member of the consulate staff was injured in the incident.

The museum and research institute, which focuses on the history of Germany’s 1933-45 Nazi regime, is located near the Israeli Consulate in Munich’s Maxvorstadt neighbourhood.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described the exchange of fire as a serious incident. “The protection of Israeli facilities has top priority,” she said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken to his German counterpart. “We expressed our shared condemnation and horror at the terror attack this morning,” Herzog said on X. “A hate-fuelled terrorist came and once again sought to murder innocent people.”

The shooting comes at a time of heightened polarisation in German politics. On Sunday, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to win a regional election since World War Two.

READ: German Jews celebrating victory of far-right party accused of downplaying Holocaust