|
|
|
Police
give
all-clear
in
Munich
shooting;
say
suspect
dead
By FRANK
JORDANS,
DAVID
RISING
and
MICHAEL
FAULHABER
Associated
Press
MUNICH -
A gunman
opened
fire in
a
crowded
Munich
shopping
mall and
a nearby
McDonald's
Friday
night,
killing
nine
people
and
wounding
at least
10
others
before
killing
himself,
said
authorities
who
called
the
rampage
an act
of
terrorism.
Police
gave a
"cautious
all
clear"
early
Saturday
morning,
more
than
seven
hours
after
the
attack
began.
They
said a
body
found
near the
scene
was that
of the
shooter
and he
appeared
to have
acted
alone.
Witnesses
had
reported
seeing
three
men with
firearms
near the
Olympia
Einkaufszentrum
mall,
but
police
said on
Twitter
that "as
part of
our
manhunt
we found
a person
who had
killed
himself
- the
person
is
likely
to have
been the
attacker
who,
according
to the
current
state of
the
investigation,
acted
alone."
They
lifted a
shutdown
of all
public
transport
in the
Bavarian
capital,
and said
more
details
would be
disclosed
at a
press
conference
later in
the
morning.
After
gunfire
broke
out at
the
mall,
one of
Munich's
largest,
the city
sent a
smartphone
alert
declaring
an
"emergency
situation"
and
telling
people
to stay
indoors,
while
all
rail,
subway
and
trolley
service
was
halted
in the
city.
It was
the
third
major
act of
violence
against
civilians
in
Western
Europe
in eight
days.
The
previous
attacks,
in the
French
resort
city of
Nice and
on a
train in
Bavaria,
were
claimed
by the
Islamic
State
group.
While
police
called
the mall
shooting
an act
of
terrorism,
they
said
they had
"no
indication"
it
involved
Islamic
extremism
and at
least
one
witness
said he
heard a
shooter
shout an
anti-foreigner
slur.
The
attack
started
shortly
before 6
p.m. at
a
McDonald's
across
the
street
from the
mall,
which
was
filled
with
people
doing
their
weekend
shopping.
As
dozens
of shots
rang
out,
terrified
shoppers
ran from
the
scene,
some
carrying
babies
and
pushing
strollers.
Video
obtained
by The
Associated
Press
from
German
news
agency
NonstopNews
showed
two
bodies
with
sheets
draped
over
them not
far from
the
fastfood
restaurant.
Another
video
posted
online
showed a
gunman
emerging
from the
door of
the
McDonald's,
raising
what
appeared
to be a
pistol
with
both
hands
and
aiming
at
people
on the
sidewalk,
firing
as they
fled in
terror.
Witness
Luan
Zequiri
said he
was in
the mall
when the
shooting
began.
He told
German
broadcaster
n-tv
that he
heard
the
attacker
yell an
anti-foreigner
insult
and
"there
was a
really
loud
scream."
He said
he saw
only one
attacker,
who was
wearing
jack
boots
and a
backpack.
"I
looked
in his
direction
and he
shot two
people
on the
stairs,"
Zequiri
said. He
said he
hid in a
shop,
then ran
outside
when the
coast
was
clear
and saw
bodies
of the
dead and
wounded
on the
ground.
Germany's
Interior
Ministry
said
Munich
police
had set
up a
hotline
for
concerned
citizens.
Residents
of
Munich
opened
their
doors to
people
seeking
shelter
using
the
Twitter
hashtag
#opendoor.
Also on
Twitter,
police
asked
people
to
refrain
from
speculating
about
the
attack.
Germany's
interior
minister
cut
short
his
holiday
in the
United
States
to go
back to
Berlin
late
Friday
to meet
with
security
officials.
German
Chancellor
Angela
Merkel
was
being
regularly
briefed
on the
attack,
said her
chief of
staff,
Peter
Altmaier.
"All
that we
know and
can say
right
now is
that it
was a
cruel
and
inhumane
attack,"
he said
on
German
public
channel
ARD. "We
can't
rule out
that
there
are
terrorist
links.
We can't
confirm
them,
but we
are
investigating
along
those
lines
too."
Altmaier
noted
that
Friday
was the
fifth
anniversary
of the
massacre
in Oslo,
Norway,
by a
far-right
extremist
that
killed
77
people,
69 of
them at
a youth
summer
camp.
"You can
only
have
absolute
security
in an
absolute
surveillance
state,
and
nobody
wants
that, it
would be
the
opposite
of our
free
western
European
way of
life,"
he said.
"But,
and this
became
clear
again
today,
we can't
talk
down
this
danger.
It's a
danger
that
many
countries
are
exposed,
especially
in the
west,
and
that's
why it's
important
to give
our
security
agencies
the
instruments
they
need."
Police
responded
in large
numbers
to the
mall in
the
northern
part of
Munich,
near the
city's
Olympic
Stadium
in the
Moosach
district
of the
Bavarian
capital.
It was
also not
far from
where
Palestinian
attackers
opened
fire in
the
Olympic
Village
in 1972,
killing
11
Israeli
athletes.
Five
guerrillas
and a
police
officer
were
also
killed.
The GSG9
anti-terrorism
unit was
created
after
that
attack,
though
the city
saw a
worse
one in
1980,
when 13
people
were
killed
and more
than 200
injured
at the
city's
annual
Oktoberfest
in a
bombing
blamed
on a
student
with
ties to
a
neo-Nazi
group.
It was
the
second
attack
in
Germany
in less
than a
week. On
Monday,
a
17-year-old
Afghan
wounded
four
people
in an
ax-and-knife
attack
on a
regional
train
near the
Bavarian
city of
Wuerzburg,
and
another
woman
outside
as he
fled.
All
survived,
although
one man
from the
train
remains
in
life-threatening
condition.
The
attacker
was shot
and
killed
by
police.
The
Islamic
State
group
claimed
responsibility
for the
train
attack,
but
authorities
have
said the
teen
likely
acted
alone.
Gun
attacks
in
Germany
are
uncommon.
Firearm
ownership
is
widespread
but they
are
strictly
regulated,
with
purchasers
first
having
to take
training
courses
in order
to be
granted
a permit
to own
one.
Many
types of
firearms
are
banned.
In the
U.S.,
President
Barack
Obama
pledged
to
provide
Germany
with
whatever
help it
might
need to
investigate
the mall
shooting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|