In the shooting that led to the gunman's death, he walked around for 10 minutes firing a rifle, but police initially were unsure whether the rifle was a prop or real.
A shooting occurred at the Israeli consulate in Munich, Germany this week, with responding police officers shooting and killing the gunman, according to reports at the time. The consulate was closed on Thursday morning while staff were attending a memorial service for the Israeli victims during the shooting. 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre The timing of the attack, in which a Palestinian terrorist killed 11 Israelis, has led police to suspect that a perpetrator with Islamist sympathies may have carried out the attack on the anniversary.
The suspect, 18-year-old Emra I., is said to have turned up on Thursday morning carrying a Swiss army surplus repeating rifle with a bayonet, possibly a 1933 K31 carbine, and was quickly spotted by officers. Reports Die WeltPolice were initially unsure whether the antiquated rifle was real or a prop and lost sight of the Austrian man, an immigrant of Bosnian origin.
MUNICH, BAVARIA, 6 September 2024: Deputy Chief of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office Guido Rimmer and Senior Prosecutor Gabriele Tillmann sit at the podium during a press conference at Munich police headquarters on the current situation regarding the suspected terror attack that took place yesterday in Munich. Authorities are continuing to investigate the background following the thwarted suspected terror attack at the Israeli Consulate General in Munich on Thursday (5 September 2024). Photo: Lennart Preiss/dpa (Photo by Lennart Preiss/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Emra I first fired at the National Socialist Documentation Center (NS-Dokumentationszentrum München), a new museum and education center built on the site of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party headquarters, the Brown House, which was destroyed in a bombing raid during World War II. German media said he fired two rounds at the building. Footage of the purported incident shared on German social media shows a man being shot and apparently blown back by the recoil of the rifle.
The immigrant gunman then tried to scale the exterior wall of the Israeli consulate but was unable to do so and opened fire on the building, firing two more shots, one of which hit a window. The teen also fired five more shots at police officers when confronted by two police officers who ordered him to drop his rifle.
The suspect, Emra I., who has since died, continued to move around and fire shots for a total of about 10 minutes after he was shot and then tried to attack officers while lying face down.
The attack on the Israeli consulate came not only at a time of heightened tensions but also on the anniversary of a major anti-Israeli Palestinian terror attack, sparking debate about rising anti-Semitism in Germany and a growing perception that after several years of calm, Germany could be heading back to an era of terrorist attacks.
The perpetrator was reportedly an immigrant from neighboring Austria who was otherwise well-integrated and from a stable middle-class family, highlighting the risks European countries continue to face in managing their diverse populations. Second and third generation immigrants Risk of being radicalised online.
Emra I was known to the Austrian police as a potential radical, but this information was not passed on to the German authorities. Kronen Zeitung Reports In spring 2023, he was investigated for membership of a terrorist organization after Islamic State propaganda documents were found on his mobile phone, an investigation that was ultimately not pursued, causing a minor scandal in Austria. The government There is debate over whether they should have more powers to eavesdrop on private conversations in order to catch more terrorists in the future.
The shooting came a day after another suspected Islamist attack on Friday, when an immigrant man with a machete stormed a police station. That attempt was also unsuccessful, and officers trapped the would-be attacker inside the building and shot him with a Taser. He is being held in custody pending trial.
