MUNICH: German police shot and killed a man who opened fire on them with a vintage rifle near the Israeli consulate in Munich on Thursday in what they treated as a foiled attack on the diplomatic mission.

Authorities identified the gunman, who was killed in a hail of police bullets, as an 18-year-old Austrian man but did not immediately comment on media reports that he was a known extremist.

German news site Spiegel Online and Austrian media said that he had been investigated last year for allegedly spreading the militant Islamic State group propaganda, but that the case had been dropped.

While the motive was not yet known, Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder said “there is a terrible suspicion” the case was linked to Thursday’s anniversary of the deadly 1972 attack on Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich by Palestinian militants.

The shootout around 9am sparked a mass mobilisation of about 500 police in downtown Munich, where residents and office workers huddled indoors as sirens wailed and a helicopter flew above. Video footage published by German media showed dramatic scenes in which police commandos in body armour and helmets took cover from gunshots, then unleashed a barrage of bullets.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2024