A teenager with German-Iranian citizenship has shot and killed nine people and wounded more than 15 at a shopping centre in Munich, in the third attack on civilians in Europe in eight days.
The 18-year-old man, who police believe acted alone, is understood to have lived in Munich for up to two years. He reportedly shouted “I am German” during the prolonged attack on Friday evening, at the end of which he killed himself.
Germany’s third largest city was forced into lockdown after the gunman opened fire on diners in a McDonald’s restaurant before moving to a nearby shopping mall.
His motive was “completely unclear”, said Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae. There was no immediate evidence of an Islamist or other terrorist motive.Police raided the attacker’s home in the early hours of Saturday, according to local media, but there were no details of his identity and he was not known to police.
A video posted on Twitter appeared to show the gunman in a furious exchange with a bystander as the attack was going on. In the footage, an unseen man can be heard shouting abuse at a man who appears to be the attacker pacing the top of a car park.
The unseen man can be heard telling other people with him that the man in the carpark has a gun, to which the man purported to be shooter responds: “Fucking Turks!”
The unseen man shouts: “He has loaded his gun. Get the cops here,” to which the other man shouts back: “I am German.”
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was due to meet her chief of staff, interior minister, and a host of intelligence officials on Saturday morning to review the incident, which comes in the wake of the Bastille Day truck atrocity in Nice and an axe attack in southern Germany.
The French president, François Hollande said the Munich shooting was a “disgusting terrorist attack” aimed at stirring up fear across Europe.
“The terrorist attack that struck Munich killing many people is a disgusting act that aims to foment fear in Germany after other European countries,” Hollande said.
“Germany will resist, it can count on France’s friendship and cooperation,” he said, adding that he would speak to Merkel on Saturday morning.
US intelligence officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said initial reports from their German counterparts indicated no apparent link between the shooter and Islamic State or other militant groups.
A 15-year-old girl was among the dead, and at least 16 people, including several children, were in hospital; three were in critical condition, Andrae said.
The gunman’s body was found in a side street close to the mall. Police used a bomb disposal robot to search the site for explosives and booby traps, a local reporter said.
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.
The violence began just before 6pm, when the gunman, wearing a red backpack, opened fire at the McDonald’s restaurant outside the Olympia shopping centre, near the site of the 1972 Olympic Games.
Video apparently shot outside the restaurant showed people fleeing in terror as a gunman with a pistol surveyed the street then calmly and indiscriminately opened fire as terrified bystanders raced for cover.
Emergency services raced to the site within minutes, but the gunman had apparently vanished. Police, fearing several attackers, searched 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.
Asked if this was a terror attack, a police spokesman said: “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.”
Merkel will convene a meeting of her security council, made up of senior ministers, on Saturday.
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.
Other witnesses reported hearing shots inside and outside the shopping mall, known locally as the OEZ. “I was shopping when I heard three shots, then we ran out and about 40 seconds later we heard five shots from outside,” said Florian Horn, 33.
Staff in the mall were still in hiding more than an hour after the attack, an employee told Reuters by telephone. “Many shots were fired. I can’t say how many, but it’s been a lot,” said the employee, who declined to be identified.
“All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive.”
“I ran out, I was so afraid, and then some people brought me and several others into their garden and apartment where we found safety,” said Jennifer Hartel, who had lost a shoe fleeing the attack and was still shaking three hours after the violence.
The horror of the bloodshed was followed by hours of uncertainty, as police raced to track down the gunman captured on video and up to two other reported attackers.
Police used a smartphone warning system, Katwarn, to urge people to stay at home, and used social media to ask locals and journalists not to share photos or video of police action to avoid helping any suspects on the run.
Residents responded by sharing pictures of pets and other cuddly animals under hashtags also used for news of the attack, and offering those stranded in the city a place to stay.
Hospitals were on emergency alert with staff, including doctors, surgeons and nurses, called in to await casualties.
Among the parts of the city to be evacuated was Munich central station. People were reported to have screamed and scrambled over railway platforms as the police ordered them to leave the station.
Germany’s elite unit, its SAS equivalent GSG9, was flown in to support local security forces. Armed and masked but dressed otherwise unassumingly in T-shirts, trainers and shorts they were spotted in the vicinity of the local police who were on the scene within minutes of the first emergency call having been received.
It is the second attack in Bavaria in less than a week. Security forces have been on high alert after a teenage refugee attacked train passengers near the city of Würzburg with an axe and a knife.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the attacker was likely to have acted alone.
Flags will fly at half mast on official buildings across Germany on Saturday. The country’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière – currently flying back from New York, will head straight to Munich on Saturday morning .
The UK’s Foreign Office issued an alert warning British citizens in Munich to follow the instructions of the authorities. Speaking at the UN in New York, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said: “Everybody is shocked and saddened by what has taken place. Our thoughts are very much with the victims, their families, with the people of Munich.”
“If, as seems very likely, this is another terrorist incident, then I think it proves once again that we have a global phenomenon now and a global sickness that we have to tackle both at source – in the areas where the cancer is being incubated in the Middle East – and also of course around the world.”
