Munich police kill gunman in exchange of fire near Israeli consulate

Police in Munich exchanged fire with a gunman near the Israeli Consulate in Munich on Thursday, fatally wounding him. Authorities said he may have been planning to attack the consulate on the anniversary of the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.

No one else was hurt in the shootout shortly after 9 a.m.. in an an area near the consulate and a museum on the city's Nazi-era history. Officers had been alerted to a person carrying a "long gun" in the Karolinenplatz area, near downtown Munich, at around 9 a.m. and returned fire when he shot at them. The suspect died at the scene.

Five officers were at the scene at the time the gunfire erupted. Police later deployed to the area in force.

Police said the gunman was an 18-year-old national of neighboring Austria, but investigators were still looking into his motive.

"We have to assume that an attack on the Israeli Consulate possibly was planned early today," Bavaria's top security official, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, told reporters at the scene.

Thursday was the 52nd anniversary of the attack by Palestinian militants on the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which ended with the death of 11 Israeli team members, a West German police officer and five of the assailants.

Police said there was no evidence of any more suspects connected to the incident.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the consulate in Munich was closed when the shooting occurred and that none of its staff were hurt.

The nearby Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, which opened in 2015 and explores the city's past as the birthplace of the Nazi movement, also said all of its employees were unharmed.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he spoke with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He wrote on the social media platform X that "together we expressed our shared condemnation and horror" at the shooting.