Munich Police Fatally Shoot Man they Believe Was Planning to Attack Israeli Consulate

Police vehicles parked in Munich near the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Simon Sachseder/dpa via AP)
Police vehicles parked in Munich near the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Simon Sachseder/dpa via AP)
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Munich Police Fatally Shoot Man they Believe Was Planning to Attack Israeli Consulate

Police vehicles parked in Munich near the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Simon Sachseder/dpa via AP)
Police vehicles parked in Munich near the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Simon Sachseder/dpa via AP)

Police in Munich exchanged fire with a gunman near the Israeli Consulate in Munich on Thursday, fatally wounding him. Authorities said they believe he was planning to attack the consulate on the anniversary of the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
No one else was hurt in the shootout shortly after 9 a.m. in an area near the consulate and a museum on the city's Nazi-era history. Officers had been alerted to a person carrying a gun in the Karolinenplatz area, near downtown Munich, and returned fire when he shot at them. The suspect, who was carrying an old long gun with a bayonet attached to it, died at the scene.
Five officers were at the scene at the time the gunfire erupted. Police quickly deployed about 500 officers to the area, The Associated Press reported.
Police said the gunman was an 18-year-old from Austria, but investigators were still looking into his motive. They didn't give further details on the suspect, who left a car near the scene, except to say that he lived in Austria.
“We have to assume that an attack on the Israeli Consulate possibly was planned early today," Bavaria's top security official, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, told reporters at the scene. “It's obvious that, if someone parks here within sight of the Israeli Consulate ... then starts shooting, it most probably isn't a coincidence.”
Prosecutors and police said in a statement later Thursday they currently believe the plan was for “a terrorist attack, also with respect to the consulate of the state of Israel,” and that they are still investigating the man's motive.
Thursday was the 52nd anniversary of the attack by Palestinian militants on the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which ended with the death of 11 Israeli team members, a West German police officer and five of the assailants.
“There may be a connection — that must be cleared up,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder said.
Munich police said there was no evidence of any more suspects connected to the shooting.
In neighboring Austria's Salzburg province, police said the suspected assailant, an Austrian with Bosnian roots, had come to authorities' attention in February 2023. They said that, following a “dangerous threat” against fellow students coupled with bodily harm, he had also been accused of involvement in a terror organization.
There was a suspicion that he had become religiously radicalized, was active online in that context and was interested in explosives and weapons, a police statement said, but prosecutors closed an investigation in April 2023.
However, authorities did issue a ban on him owning weapons until at least the beginning of 2028. Police said he had not come to their attention since.



NATO Chief Rutte Says Zelenskiy's Criticism of Germany's Scholz is Unfair

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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NATO Chief Rutte Says Zelenskiy's Criticism of Germany's Scholz is Unfair

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he considered the sometimes harsh criticism of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to be unjustified, news wire DPA reported.
Although Germany has been a vital ally of Ukraine, its hesitation in providing long-range Taurus cruise missiles has been a source of frustration in Kyiv, which is battling a foe armed with a powerful array of long-range weaponry, Reuters reported.
"I have often told Zelenskiy that he should stop criticizing Olaf Scholz, because I think it is unfair," DPA quoted Rutte on Monday as saying in an interview.
Rutte also said that he, unlike Scholz, would supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles and would not set limits on their use.
"In general, we know that such capabilities are very important for Ukraine," Rutte said, adding that it was not up to him to decide what allies should deliver.
After a November telephone call by Scholz with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin in November, Zelenskiy said it had opened a Pandora's box that undermined efforts to isolate the Russian leader and end the war in Ukraine with a "fair peace".