Munich
gunman acted alone, motive unknown
Chancellor
Angela Merkel to chair emergency meeting of security council
Saturday.
By KATE DAY AND
LOUISE ROUG 7/23/16, 3:10 AM CET Updated 7/23/16, 7:18 AM CET
A shooting at
Munich’s biggest shopping center on Friday in which at least 9
people were killed was carried out by a single gunman who then
committed suicide, German police said.
The motive behind
the killings was unclear, Munich police chief Hubertus Andra said.
The shooter was
identified as an 18-year-old man with Iranian and German nationality
who had lived in Munich for at least two years. Andra told a press
conference it was “totally unclear” whether the incident was an
act of terror.
Twenty-one people,
including several children, were taken to the hospital. Police report
16 are injured and three remain in a critical condition.
Andra said that
there was no evidence that this “brutal and violent act” should
give people reason to feel unsafe or hide away, but added that “there
is no such thing as 100 percent safety or security.”
Chancellor Angela
Merkel called an emergency meeting for her security council on
Saturday, her chief of staff said. The German interior minister,
Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to the U.S. on holiday,
interrupted his trip and headed home for crisis talks, according the
ministry.
Horst Seehofer, the
Bavarian premier, and Joachim Hermann, the state’s interior
minister, also held crisis talks, according to Die Welt.
Munich events and
public transport were slated to resume as scheduled Saturday.
In the immediate
aftermath of the attack police believed there were three attackers on
the run and authorities began an extensive manhunt, locking down
neighborhoods and asking people to stay home as subway and bus
services were discontinued. The streets of this leafy, laid-back city
turned ghostly as neighborhoods near the mall were deserted. A state
of emergency was declared across Munich.
People leaving work
found themselves stranded without transportation and residents
offered shelter to strangers, tweeting under the hashtag #offenetür
and #opendoor. Parliament, mosques and Sikh temples in Munich also
opened their doors to the public.
Police deployed
2,300 officers, bringing in extra reinforcement from around the
country and even from across the border in Austria and Switzerland.
Donald Tusk,
president of the European Council, tweeted, “All of Europe now with
#Munich.”
President Barack
Obama told reporters that he was being briefed on the developing
situation, calling Germany a close ally and saying the U.S.
government will “pledge all the support that they may need” in
the investigation.
The U.K. Foreign
Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, “Deeply shocked & saddened by
#Munich shootings. My thoughts are w/ the victims, their loved ones &
all #Germany at this time.”
The shooting began
in Hanauer Straße and then shifted to the Riesstraße — streets
close to the Olympia shopping center — before moving into the mall
itself shortly before 6 p.m., according to the official Facebook page
of the Munich police.
German security
forces have been on alert since a man stabbed five people on a train
in Bavaria on Monday, and fears over terror attacks have risen
sharply, according to a poll published on Friday.
The Munich police
department, which shared live updates on Twitter in German, French,
English and Turkish throughout the evening, asked the public not to
post any photos or videos of the attack to social media but rather
upload it directly to police so that it might aid the investigation.
A video published online appeared to show a man opening fire at a
McDonald’s restaurant near the mall. Another video shared online
showed what appeared to be a shooter on the roof of a garage nearby.
Sigmar Gabriel, the
German vice chancellor, tweeted that while the news out of Munich was
shocking, speculation would not be helpful.
Authors:
Kate Day and Louise
Roug
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