Munich police shoot ‘suspicious’ person amid ‘major’ operation in city center
Police officers secure the area around the Koenigsplatz square after a shooting near the building of the Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (NS-Dokumentationszentrum) in Munich, southern Germany, on September 5, 2024. (PAULINE CURTET/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Munich police shot a “suspicious person” in the Karolinenplatz area of the southern German city on Thursday morning, authorities said, adding they had launched a “major operation.”
“Police officers spotted a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm,” Munich’s police force said in a statement on social media. “The emergency services used their service weapons and the person was hit and injured.”
The area was cordoned off, with a helicopter in the air above the scene, the force said.
“There are currently no indications of any other suspects,” police said, adding that there were no other reported injuries.
The shooting occurred next to the city’s Nazi Documentation Center, police said.
“Many emergency services are on their way to the site of operations,” the force noted. “We ask that you avoid this area as much as possible.”
The Nazi Documentation Center is one of the city’s most popular museums, located midway between the famous Karolinenplatz and Königsplatz squares just northwest of the medieval old town. It is less than 500 feet from the Israeli Consulate.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that there had been a “shooting incident” close to the consulate, noting that the facility was closed on Thursday coinciding with the anniversary of the deadly terror attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
“No one from the consulate staff was injured in the incident,” the ministry’s spokesperson said. “The shooter was neutralized by the German security forces and the incident is under their care.”
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon’s southern village of Kfar Kila on September 20, 2024. — Rabih Daher/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As scores of rockets flew from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Friday, officials with the U.S. and other international leaders urged Hezbollah and Israel to seek diplomatic paths to de-escalate the conflict.
About 120 rockets were fired toward Israel by midday on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces told ABC News. Israel on Thursday struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets within Lebanon, the military said.
U.S. officials have this week privately urged their Israeli counterparts to find a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday. He added that U.S. was committed to the defense of Israel from all terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies.
“We will continue to stand by Israel’s right to defend itself,” Miller said during a press briefing Thursday. “But we don’t want to see any party escalate this conflict, period.”
Miller and other U.S. officials joined a chorus of international officials who were also asking Israel and Hezbollah to step back from a conflict that’s at risk of spreading and increasing in intensity. Israel and Hezbollah have for most of the last 11 months fired a near-daily volley of projectiles across the border.
Those strikes appeared on Thursday to take on a new urgency, as Israel launched a series of strikes on Hezbollah targets within Lebanon. The strikes were among the largest in almost a year. And they followed an attack with explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies in both Lebanon and Syria, a deadly surprise attack that Israel was behind, according to a source.
A spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon told Reuters on Friday the agency was also calling for de-escalation after seeing this week “a heavy intensification of the hostilities across the Blue Line,” a reference to the border between Israel and Lebanon.
European leaders had on Thursday made similar pleas. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy both called for de-escalation in the Middle East in separate public statements.
Macron posted a message in French on social media addressing the Lebanese people, saying they cannot live in fear of an imminent war and conflict must be avoided.
Lammy said he met with his American, French, German and Italian counterparts Thursday and all four of them agreed that “we want to see a negotiated political settlement” between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group.
“We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed, Lebanese can return to their homes,” Lammy told reporters Thursday.
He added, “And that’s why tonight I’m calling for an immediate cease-fire from both sides so that we can get to that settlement, that political settlement that’s required.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
Police officers secure the area around the Koenigsplatz square after a shooting near the building of the Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (NS-Dokumentationszentrum) in Munich, southern Germany, on September 5, 2024. (PAULINE CURTET/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Munich police shot a “suspicious person” in the Karolinenplatz area of the southern German city on Thursday morning, authorities said, adding they had launched a “major operation.”
“Police officers spotted a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm,” Munich’s police force said in an initial statement on social media. “The emergency services used their service weapons and the person was hit and injured.”
“The weapon used by the suspect is an older long gun,” a later police update clarified. “The suspect was fatally injured in the shootout. There are still no indications of further suspects or other injured persons.”
The area was cordoned off, with a helicopter in the air above the scene, the force said.
The shooting occurred next to the city’s Nazi Documentation Center, police said.
“Many emergency services are on their way to the site of operations,” the force noted. “We ask that you avoid this area as much as possible.”
The Nazi Documentation Center is one of the city’s most popular museums, located midway between the famous Karolinenplatz and Königsplatz squares just northwest of the medieval old town. It is less than 500 feet from the Israeli Consulate.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that there had been a “shooting incident” close to the consulate, noting that the facility was closed on Thursday coinciding with the anniversary of the deadly terror attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
“No one from the consulate staff was injured in the incident,” the ministry’s spokesperson said. “The shooter was neutralized by the German security forces and the incident is under their care.”
(NEW YORK) — As Israel laid the groundwork for a possible ground invasion of Lebanon, the Biden administration on Wednesday was urging diplomacy to resolve the country’s long-simmering conflict with Hezbollah — but growing increasingly resigned to full-blown warfare on a second front in the Middle East, according to multiple U.S. officials.
Two officials told ABC News that the administration has floated at least one draft proposal aimed at temporarily halting the conflict, but at this point Israel has signaled it intends to move forward with battle plans aimed at ending months of tit-for-tat exchanges with Hezbollah across its northern border by decimating the militant group.
“I cannot detail everything we are doing, but I can tell you one thing: we are determined to return our residents in the north safely to their homes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, referring to Israelis who have been displaced since Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
One senior U.S. official said that Hezbollah’s firing of a ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad near Tel Aviv only intensified the Israeli government’s resolve, even though Israeli forces were able to successfully intercept the missile.
The U.S. also has little leverage over Hezbollah, so it’s unclear whether the group would abide by any such agreement to pause the fighting. The administration could potentially rely on partners with direct ties to Hezbollah to contain the group, but all of its efforts to halt its attacks on Israel over the last year have been unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, senior officials say they are still pursuing “concrete options” for de-escalation, and Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday that Israeli leadership remained “open-minded.”
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Wednesday that it didn’t appear an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was in the offing, potentially allowing time for negotiations make headway.
“Without characterizing Israeli operations and letting them speak to them for themselves, it doesn’t look like anything is imminent,” she said.
The Biden administration is also fervently focused on keeping Iran — a chief military and financial supporter of Hezbollah — on the sidelines through indirect diplomacy.
“We also have to coordinate and work together to deter destabilizing activities by Iran. I urge all of us to use the leverage that we have to press Iran to stop fueling escalation,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a meeting with Arab leaders at the United Nations on Wednesday.
But Israel’s military actions in Lebanon over the course of the last week have put the schism between Israel and the U.S. on full display.
When Israel has struck Hezbollah targets in the past, it has typically given the U.S. advanced notice. However, Biden administration officials say they did not receive any warning before hundreds of communication devices distributed to the groups’ members exploded in an attack widely attributed to Israel.
While Israel has messaged its intention to conduct a ground incursion into Lebanon, it has not shared detailed plans with the U.S. — a dynamic that echoes the early days of the country’s military campaign in Gaza.
The lack of transparency has heightened concerns for Americans in the region. The State Department estimates that over 80,000 U.S. citizens live in Lebanon, but it’s unclear how many heeded the department’s July advisory to leave the country.
In a message to Americans still in Lebanon sent on Wednesday, State Department officials said they would hold a call on the security situation in the country on Friday and urged U.S. nationals to depart “while commercial options still remain available.”
ABC News’ Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.
