Munich police fatally wounded an armed man on Thursday during an exchange of fire near a museum dedicated to the city’s Nazi-era history and the Israeli Consulate, authorities said.
Police spokesperson Andreas Franken told reporters that officers responded to reports of a person carrying a “long gun” in the Karolinenplatz area, near downtown Munich, around 9 a.m. The ensuing exchange of gunfire resulted in the suspect sustaining fatal injuries. No other injuries were reported.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the suspect had opened fire on police before officers returned fire. The man, who was carrying an old make of firearm with a repeating mechanism, died at the scene.
Authorities have not released information on the suspect’s identity or possible motives. The incident occurred on the 52nd anniversary of the attack by Palestinian militants on the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which resulted in multiple deaths. However, police have not indicated any connection between the anniversary and Thursday’s events.
Police increased their presence in Germany’s third-largest city but said they had no indication of incidents at other locations or of any other suspects. Five officers were present when the gunfire erupted, with additional forces deployed to the area afterward.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the consulate in Munich was closed when the shooting occurred, and none of its staff was harmed. The nearby Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, which explores the city’s past as the birthplace of the Nazi movement, reported that all of its employees were unharmed.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier about the incident. Herzog wrote on social media platform X that “together we expressed our shared condemnation and horror” at the shooting.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Berlin, described the shooting as “a serious incident” but declined to speculate on its nature. She emphasized that “the protection of Jewish and Israeli facilities has the highest priority.”
The incident has prompted heightened security measures in Munich, with authorities continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
