Armed teenager shot dead near Israeli consulate in Germany

Gunfire in Munich on 52nd anniversary of attack on Israeli athletes at Munich 1972 Olympics

An armed man was shot dead by German police on Thursday after opening fire near an Israeli consulate in Munich.

The 18-year-old Austrian national fired several shots in an area that also includes a museum in a former Nazi headquarters, police said. No other injuries were reported.

The gunfire occurred 52 years to the day since Israeli athletes were taken hostage during the Munich 1972 Olympics. Detectives were probing the significance of the timing and location.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke to German head of state Frank-Walter Steinmeier to express "shared condemnation and horror" at what he called a terrorist attack.

Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the state of Bavaria, said the man was carrying an old make of a long-barrelled gun.

He said it was obvious there "could be connections" to the Israeli consulate and the 1972 attack by Palestinian militants, but that these were being investigated.

“It's obvious that, if someone parks here within sight of the Israeli consulate ... then starts shooting, it most probably isn't a coincidence," he said.

Armed suspect shot dead near Israeli consulate in Germany - in pictures

Police in Salzburg, Austria, stand outside the home of the armed suspect who was shot dead after opening fire near the Israeli consulate in Munich. AFP

Authorities identified the gunman, who was firing a vintage carbine rifle, as an 18-year-old Austrian man. AFP

Police officers at the Israeli Consulate General building after the shooting near the NS Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism in Munich. EPA

The man fired several shots in an area that includes a museum in a former Nazi headquarters, police said. AFP

Police officers secure the area in Munich. EPA

Police officers remove a car. AFP

The gunfire occurred 52 years to the day since Israeli athletes were taken hostage during the Munich 1972 Olympics. AFP

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the consulate was closed to mark the anniversary and said nobody had been harmed. AP

Police did not give further details about the suspect, who left a car near the scene.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the consulate was closed to mark the anniversary and said nobody had been harmed. Nearby is a documentation centre where the Nazi Party's headquarters once stood, in the city where the party was founded and Adolf Hitler first tried to seize power.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the exchange of fire a "serious incident". She said the "protection of Jewish and Israeli facilities has the highest priority".

Security was stepped up at synagogues and Jewish buildings after a spate of anti-Semitic incidents following Hamas's attack on Israel last October. Attacks on Muslims in Germany have also increased during the 11 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The shooting also came days after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party pulled off the first far-right election victory since the Second World War, in a regional poll in Thuringia.

Attack anniversary

Before Thursday's incident, Ms Faeser's ministry had posted on social media to mark the 1972 attack in which 11 Israelis and a West German police officer were killed.

The ministry last year announced a new inquiry into the attack, after families of the victims threatened to boycott 50th anniversary commemorations while their questions remained unanswered.

The Israeli team members, including athletes, coaches and judges, were taken hostage by militants from the Palestinian group Black September who infiltrated the Olympic Village.

A failed rescue attempt ended with all the captives, five militants and the police officer dead. Three attackers who escaped the shoot-out were later let go during the hijacking of a German Lufthansa plane.