Munich Police Belive Attacker Acted Alone
Munich Police Belive Attacker Acted Alone
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MUNICH - Munich police had declared a cautious “all-clear” Friday night following a mass shooting in the shopping centre. The attack sparked a manhunt that shut down the entire city, as security forces hunted for a number of suspected attackers.
The lone gunman who killed nine people and wounded a further 21 at a shopping center in Munich before shooting himself was an 18 year old German of Iranian descent, police have said.
However, police confirmed in a press conference that the shooter had acted alone, and was dead.
A 15 year old girl was among the dead, and several injured youngsters have been admitted to children’s hospitals in Munich, local media reported.
Police stopped trains, buses and trams, closed highways to private cars and ordered citizens to stay in their homes as they searched for suspected killers, as false rumours of fresh attacks sent panic through the city. The transport network was reopened following the all-clear.
One body found near the site of the shopping centre carnage appeared to be the gunman who killed himself, authorities said. They were using a bomb disposal robot to search the site for explosives and booby traps, a local reporter said.
The violence began just before 6pm, when a gunman opened fire at a McDonald’s restaurant outside the Olympia shopping centre, near the site of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The emergency services raced to the site within minutes, but the gunman had apparently vanished from the scene. Police feared there were several attackers searched across the city, and a painstaking operation was launched to secure the shopping mall where dozens of shoppers and workers were still thought to be hiding.
For several hours, as rumours about the number and location of attackers swept through Munich, and officers went slowly from store to store, there was a desperate vigil for loved ones trapped inside.
“My 23 year old daughter was part of a group that locked themselves inside H&M to protect themselves. I spoke to her over the phone and she was crying, but then her battery ran out,” said one father, weeping himself. He asked not to be named because of fears for his daughter.
Police give all clear and say ‘high probability’ attacker acted alone Gunman was 18 year old German of Iranian descent.
“If a man with a gun in a shopping centre opens fire and eight people are dead, we have to work on the assumption that this was not a normal crime and was a terrorist act,” a police spokesman said, about this terror attack.
But officials stressed that they had no details on gunman’s identity or motive.
“We’re excluding nothing but there’s no clarity at this stage, and we know nothing for sure,” Peter Altmaier, one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest advisers, told local television.
She will convene a meeting of her security council, made up of senior ministers, on Saturday. He mentioned past examples of both Islamist and far-right violence. The attack comes on the fifth anniversary of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s slaughter of 77 mostly young people.
Cansu Muyan, who lives near the Olympia shopping centre, said she had been inside the mall with her sister when the attack began. “I suddenly saw everyone running past. Then a shopkeeper told us all to leave as quickly as possible so we all started running as well,” she said.
The lone gunman who killed nine people and wounded a further 21 at a shopping center in Munich before shooting himself was an 18 year old German of Iranian descent, police have said.
However, police confirmed in a press conference that the shooter had acted alone, and was dead.
A 15 year old girl was among the dead, and several injured youngsters have been admitted to children’s hospitals in Munich, local media reported.
Police stopped trains, buses and trams, closed highways to private cars and ordered citizens to stay in their homes as they searched for suspected killers, as false rumours of fresh attacks sent panic through the city. The transport network was reopened following the all-clear.
One body found near the site of the shopping centre carnage appeared to be the gunman who killed himself, authorities said. They were using a bomb disposal robot to search the site for explosives and booby traps, a local reporter said.
The violence began just before 6pm, when a gunman opened fire at a McDonald’s restaurant outside the Olympia shopping centre, near the site of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The emergency services raced to the site within minutes, but the gunman had apparently vanished from the scene. Police feared there were several attackers searched across the city, and a painstaking operation was launched to secure the shopping mall where dozens of shoppers and workers were still thought to be hiding.
For several hours, as rumours about the number and location of attackers swept through Munich, and officers went slowly from store to store, there was a desperate vigil for loved ones trapped inside.
“My 23 year old daughter was part of a group that locked themselves inside H&M to protect themselves. I spoke to her over the phone and she was crying, but then her battery ran out,” said one father, weeping himself. He asked not to be named because of fears for his daughter.
Police give all clear and say ‘high probability’ attacker acted alone Gunman was 18 year old German of Iranian descent.
“If a man with a gun in a shopping centre opens fire and eight people are dead, we have to work on the assumption that this was not a normal crime and was a terrorist act,” a police spokesman said, about this terror attack.
But officials stressed that they had no details on gunman’s identity or motive.
“We’re excluding nothing but there’s no clarity at this stage, and we know nothing for sure,” Peter Altmaier, one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest advisers, told local television.
She will convene a meeting of her security council, made up of senior ministers, on Saturday. He mentioned past examples of both Islamist and far-right violence. The attack comes on the fifth anniversary of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s slaughter of 77 mostly young people.
Cansu Muyan, who lives near the Olympia shopping centre, said she had been inside the mall with her sister when the attack began. “I suddenly saw everyone running past. Then a shopkeeper told us all to leave as quickly as possible so we all started running as well,” she said.
(rnz)
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