Gunman shot dead near Munich Nazi-era exhibit, Israel consulate

Police in Munich say officers fired shots at a suspicious person in an area near the Israeli Consulate and a museum on the city’s Nazi-era history. (AP)
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Updated 05 September 2024
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Gunman shot dead near Munich Nazi-era exhibit, Israel consulate

  • Munich police: There were ‘no indications of any other suspects’ and no one else was wounded

MUNICH, Germany: A gunman opened fire at German police before he was shot dead dead by officers Thursday near Munich’s Nazi-era documentation center and the Israeli consulate, the Bavarian state interior minister said.

“Police responded with armed force against the perpetrator, who was carrying a rifle and had fired a number of shots,” said the minister, Joachim Herrmann, adding that the gunman had died of his wounds.

Herrmann said it was “obvious that the crime scene” near the documentation center and the Israeli diplomatic mission “could provide further clues” about the gunman’s motive.

The minister also pointed out that Thursday marks “the 52nd anniversary of the terrible attack on the Israeli team during the Olympic Games” of 1972 at the hands of a Palestinian militant group.

Munich police wrote on social media platform X that, after the shooting, there were “no indications of any other suspects” and that no one else was wounded.

The Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism is located on the site of the former Nazi party headquarters and close to Israel’s consulate in the southern German city.

A police helicopter was in the sky above the area and the sound of police sirens blared through the streets.

The Bild daily showed pictures of armed police wearing helmets and body armor in the downtown area.

Police advised the public that a large number of police were “on their way to the site of operations in the area of the NS Documentation Center.”

“To ensure that they can work without hindrance, we ask that you avoid this area as much as possible.”


Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries

Updated 59 min 13 sec ago
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Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries

  • Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo warned on Friday that ​freedom of expression is “rapidly shrinking” in Western countries, and urged the right to conscientious objection for people who ‌refuse military ‌service ‌or ⁠for ​doctors who ‌refuse to perform abortions or euthanasia.
“It is painful to see how, especially in the West, ⁠the space for genuine ‌freedom of expression ‍is ‍rapidly shrinking,” the pope ‍said in an address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.
“A ​new Orwellian-style language is developing which, ⁠in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that are fueling it,” said Leo, the first ‌US pope.