Suspect shot in Munich outside Nazi documentation center

A gunman has been shot dead by German police near the Nazi documentation center and the Israeli consulate in the southern city of Munich.

The man, identified by police as an 18-year-old Austrian citizen, was hit during a shootout with officers.

Police reported that a man was spotted in the area with a long gun, and five officers then exchanged shots with their service weapons.

The Israeli consulate was closed at the time for a memorial service to commemorate the 1972 Munich Olympics attack by the Palestinian militant group Black September. Eleven Israeli athletes and a police officer were killed in the hostage-taking.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the attack may have been linked to the commemoration. Prosecutors and police later said they believed the consulate was the target.

Authorities say there are no other suspects in Thursday’s incident.

Police in Austria said the 18-year-old from Salzburg who was shot last year was being investigated on suspicion of radicalization. The Austrian news agency APA reported that Islamic State propaganda was found on his mobile phone. The Salzburg public prosecutor’s office did not confirm the report.

Munich police chief Thomas Hampel said the man was armed with a vintage hunting rifle. German media reported that he had previously been known to security services on suspicion of supporting violent Islamist groups, but police declined to comment on the reports.

Cordons were set up in the area around Karolinenplatz and the adjacent Briennerstrasse, close to the city centre.

People in nearby residential or office buildings were urged to stay indoors. Police said they were working to “clarify” the situation and warned against speculation.

A police helicopter circled above the area and the public was asked not to post footage of the incident on social media.

Nine years ago, the Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism in Munich was opened on the site of the former Nazi Party headquarters, the ‘Brown House’.

No one at the consulate was injured. After the shooting, police decided to increase security at Munich’s main synagogue, according to local reports.

Israeli Consul Talya Lador thanked police for their response and said the incident showed “how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is”.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken to his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and that they welcomed the attack with horror and condemnation.

“On the day that our brothers and sisters in Munich were supposed to stand still and remember our brave athletes who were murdered by terrorists 52 years ago, a hateful terrorist showed up who wanted to murder innocent people again,” he said.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said protecting Jewish and Israeli institutions was a top priority.

“It is very sad that the incident happened in front of the Nazi Documentation Center and the Israeli Consulate General,” she said.