Tag Archives: Munich Shooting

Afghan teenager met Munich gunman before attack

Police stand in a small street following a shooting rampage at the Olympia shopping mall in Munich, Germany

MUNICH (Reuters) – A 16-year-old Afghan youth who was arrested on Sunday had been in contact via WhatsApp with an 18-year-old gunman who killed nine people in Munich two days earlier and also met him just before the attack, Bavarian officials said.

The youth, who was questioned after he contacted police following the shooting, is under investigation for possibly having failed to report the plans of the gunman.

Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, senior public prosecutor in Munich, told a news conference on Monday the Afghan had been in contact with the gunman via WhatApp until shortly before the attack. He wiped the conversation, but officials were able to retrieve it.

“This (WhatsApp) chat and questioning of a suspect has shown that the Afghan met the gunman directly before the gun attack at what was later the scene of the crime,” Steinkraus-Koch told a news conference in Munich.

The shooting was one of four attacks in Germany – three of them by migrants – since July 18 that have left 10 people dead and 34 injured, a toll that may heighten public disquiet over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy.

More than a million migrants have entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

The WhatsApp chat showed the Afghan knew the German-Iranian gunman was in possession of a Glock 17 firearm, Steinkraus-Koch said. “They got to know each other last summer, in 2015, in a psychiatric clinic where they underwent treatment,” he said.

“There, it also became apparent to the (Afghan) suspect that the attacker was interested in Breivik,” Steinkraus-Koch added, referring to Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in back-to-back attacks in Norway in 2011.

The Afghan’s decision to delete his WhatsApp chat with the gunman and their meeting just before the Munich attack led investigators to suspect he knew of the planned shooting in advance.

“We will now pursue this suspicion,” Steinkraus-Koch said.

(Writing by Paul Carrel; editing by Joseph Nasr/Mark Heinrich)

Gunmen launch deadly attack on Munich shopping mall, still on the run

Special forces stand guard in front of Munich Mall

By Joern Poltz

MUNICH (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked a busy shopping mall in the German city of Munich on Friday evening, spraying bullets as people fled in horror for safety from what police said was a terrorist attack.

Police said six people had been killed and the attackers were still at large. They told the public to get off the streets as the city – Germany’s third biggest – went into lockdown, with transport halted and highways sealed off.

As special forces rushed to the scene, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping center.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she had seen a shooting victim on the floor who appeared to be dead or dying.

A worker at a different shop, Harun Balta, said: “We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we’re waiting for the police to rescue us.”

It was the third major act of violence against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Munich police spokeswoman said six people were killed and an undetermined number wounded. No suspects had been arrested yet, she said.

“We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT), the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping center. There are still people in the shopping center. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them,” the spokeswoman said.

Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. Munich police said on Facebook that witnesses reported three different gunmen armed with rifles.

A video posted online – whose authenticity could not be confirmed – showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

Police said witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Munich’s main railway station was also evacuated. BR said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

IS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the rampage on social media.

“Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men,” read one tweet.

“The Islamic state is expanding in Europe,” read another.

Friday’s attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an ax rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper’s Friday edition before the mall attack that there was “no reason to panic but it’s clear that Germany remains a possible target”.

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.

The Munich assault was also reminiscent of Islamist militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 and in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon, Andrea Shalal, Christina Amann, Editing and writing by Robin Pomeroy and Angus MacSwan)

Islamic State supporters hail deadly Munich shooting on social media

Police in Munich getting to shooting scene

CAIRO (Reuters) – Supporters of the Islamic State militant group celebrated on social media a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday that killed and wounded many people.

“Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men,” read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favors the radical Islamist movement.

“The Islamic state is expanding in Europe,” read an Arabic-language tweet on another account also known to support Islamic State.

The attack was the third major act of violence against civilian targets in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by Islamic State and Munich police said they suspected the latest assault was a terrorist attack.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall in the Bavarian capital but many others were hiding inside.

A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded. “We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” the spokeswoman said.

Bavarian broadcaster BR said six people were dead and many wounded in the shopping mall. NTV television reported the state’s interior ministry as saying three people were dead, but the ministry said later it would not confirm this.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train, wounding four people before he was shot dead. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Tom Heneghan)