Interior Minister for the State of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, told reporters that “the perpetrator was stopped” thanks to police intervention.
A police spokesperson in the Bavarian state capital said the man had a “long-barrelled gun” that proved to be an old rifle.
The incident occurred on the anniversary of the 1972 attack at the Munich Olympics in which Palestinian militants murdered 11 Israeli athletes.
The motive of the gunman in Thursday’s incident was not immediately known, but Herrmann said police would investigate and try to clarify whether it had any link to the anniversary.
The suspect was an 18-year-old Austrian national who had recently traveled to Germany and lived in Austria’s Salzburg area near the border with Bavaria, the Standard newspaper and Spiegel news outlet reported.
Reuters reported that he is said to have been known to security authorities as an Islamist.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the consulate was closed on Thursday for a commemoration of the 1972 massacre and no one from the consulate staff was injured in the incident.
The museum and research institute, which focuses on the history of Germany’s 1933-45 Nazi regime, is located near the Israeli consulate in Munich’s Maxvorstadt neighborhood.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described the exchange of fire as a serious incident. “The protection of Israeli facilities has top priority,” she said.
The shooting comes at a time of heightened polarization in Germany’s political climate. On Sunday, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to
win a regional election since World War II.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken to his German counterpart.
“We expressed our shared condemnation and horror at the terror attack this morning,” Herzog posted on X, adding that on the day of remembrance for the Olympics massacre, “a hate-fueled terrorist came and once again sought to murder innocent people.”
“Together we stand strong in the face of terror. Together we will overcome,” the Israeli president wrote, expressing gratitude for the German security forces for their swift reaction.
