Deadly Shootout at Israeli Consulate on Anniversary of 1972 Olympic Massacre

There was a shootout between a lone gunman and police officers outside the Israeli consulate in Munich Thursday on the anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.

Police in Munich, Germany said Thursday that officers shot and killed a man with a gun in an area near the consulate.

“Police officers spotted a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm,” the Polizei München said on X, adding the officers “used their service weapons, and the person was hit and injured. There are currently no reports of further injuries.”

Andreas Franken, a police spokesperson, later confirmed the suspect, who was carrying a “long gun,” exchanged shots with police, during which the suspect was seriously wounded. Five officers were at the scene, according to Franken.

A state minister confirmed the suspect died.

“We are very grateful to [the Munich police],” said Talya Lador, the Israeli consul general to southern Germany. “This event shows how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is. It is important that the general public raises its voice against it.”

Lador noted the Consulate General was closed Thursday to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, when affiliates of the Palestinian militant group Black September killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and kidnapped nine others who were ultimately killed in a botched rescue attempt.

The police had earlier said, at 9:15 local time, that a major operation was underway in the area of ​​Briennerstrasse and Karolinenplatz. The Consulate General of Israel in Munich is located off of the Karolinenplatz roundabout, next to the Ben-Haim-Forschungszentrum, a research center that studies the history of Jewish music.

The NS-Dokumentationszentrum, a museum of the city’s Nazi-era history, is next door.

Ronen Steinke, a journalist with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, shared a video taken near the incident in which shots could be heard.

There was no information available on whether there was a connection to any of the sites and police cautioned against the spreading of “speculation and misinformation.”

Nancy Faeser, Germany’s Interior Minister told journalists at a Berlin press conference that “the protection of Jewish and Israeli facilities has the highest priority” and thanked the Munich police.