Shots in Munich: Attempted attack on consulate – “Warning signal for all of us”

52 years after the attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympic Games, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) speaks of a “terrible suspicion” and a “terrible day”. After shots were fired in the immediate vicinity of the Israeli Consulate General in the Bavarian capital on Thursday morning, killing an armed 18-year-old, the authorities assume that the young Austrian wanted to carry out a terrorist attack.

It is unclear whether he made such a statement before the police shot him down in a shootout at 9:12 a.m., or whether evidence of an attack was found on him. According to information from the Austrian news agency APA, the 18-year-old was reported to the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office last year on suspicion of being part of a terrorist organization. The man with Bosnian roots was known to the Austrian authorities as a suspected Islamist. However, proceedings for membership of the radical Islamic terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) were dropped, it is said.

Israel’s president appalled

The authorities have not commented on this at the moment. But Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) says – even if the specific background still needs to be clarified: “If someone parks here directly within sight of the Israeli Consulate General, then walks around this Consulate General with a gun and starts shooting,” that is “certainly or with high probability not a coincidence.”

Israel’s President Izchak Herzog spoke on the phone with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and shortly afterwards expressed his horror at the incident on X. Just a few hours after the shooting, he spoke of a “terrorist attack this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich”. He wrote: “Together we are strong in the face of terror.” The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, was shocked: “According to the current information, there again seems to be an Islamist background, as was the case in Solingen last week when three people were murdered by an attacker.”

“The shock is deep”

According to Munich Police Chief Thomas Hampel, protection of Jewish and Israeli institutions will be increased immediately after the alleged attack attempt, and buildings belonging to the Jewish community will be temporarily closed. “The shock is deep,” says Charlotte Knobloch, chairwoman of the Israelite Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, about the fact that such an exchange of fire could occur in the middle of Munich and that it happened on September 5, the anniversary of the Olympic attack.

At the time of the shooting, the Consulate General was closed due to a memorial event for the anniversary, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. At that time – in September 1972 – Palestinian terrorists shot two men and took nine hostages in the Olympic Village in Munich. Around 18 hours later, a rescue attempt ended with the deaths of the nine Israeli hostages, a policeman and five assassins. The terrorists wanted to force the release of more than 200 prisoners in Israel and the RAF terrorists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.

500 police officers on duty

52 years later, around 500 police officers are deployed around the consulate in Munich, says Interior Minister Herrmann – especially in the morning, when the situation is still unclear and no one knows whether there may be other suspected perpetrators in the city. People are hiding and barricading themselves in buildings.

Whole streets are cordoned off. A helicopter is circling over the city, and police officers are standing in the roof hatches of police buses with their weapons at the ready. The famous art museums, the Munich Pinakothek, which are located in the immediate vicinity, remain closed for two and a half hours. Pedestrians and cyclists who do not understand the seriousness of the situation quickly enough are harshly shouted back by the officers, who on other days are usually friendly. The police only give the all-clear after several hours.

“Warning signal for all of us”

After the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen that left three people dead, the Bavarian authorities announced increased vigilance – also with a view to the Oktoberfest, which is due to begin in a few weeks. Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) has addressed a statement to the federal government, calling for better protection for the population, data retention, video surveillance, and random identity checks. “The variety of attacks in the last few days and weeks,” he says, requires a rethink. “Munich held its breath for a moment,” says Söder. And: “But it remains – no one should be mistaken – a warning signal for all of us.”