POLICEWOMAN, 3 OTHERS INJURED
MUNICH: A policewoman was shot in the head by a man who grabbed her gun and opened fire, also injuring bystanders, at a commuter station in a Munich suburb.
Officers had been called to the Unterfoehring subway station following reports of a row among passengers on a train. Police were called to the station, in the Munich suburb of Unterfoehring, at around 8:20 am (2:20 am ET).
When officers arrived at the S-bahn station in the northeastern suburb of the Bavarian city on Tuesday morning, a suspect involved in the fight began an altercation with two officers on the platform before attempting to push one of them into the path of an oncoming train, Munich police said in a statement.
Munich police spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said the attacker then managed to grab the female officer’s service pistol and fired several shots before he was shot himself and taken into custody.
The officer was described as being in a life-threatening condition, while the two bystanders shot suffered less serious injuries. The suspect was seriously injured by gunfire, German police said. “There was one suspect and we’ve got him,” da Gloria Martins told reporters at the scene.
The man, who was born in Bavaria, had a previous police record for possession of a small quantity of cannabis in 2014.
Police also warned at the press conference that a photo from an ID card found at the scene has been shared on social media. They say that the photo was definitely not of the attacker, and cautioned that people who share it are endangering an innocent person’s safety.
Authorities do not believe the incident was terrorism-related.
Police later said there had been “no political or religious motive” in the shooting, saying the attacker acted out of “personal” reasons.
“The sole male perpetrator was motivated by personal reasons. There is no political or religious background here,” da Gloria Martins told reporters.
Force spokesman Michael Riehlein said the area has been “secured” and that there was no danger to the wider public.
Munich police said in a tweet: “Several people were injured by shots. A female police officer was badly wounded.” Munich police spokesman Michael Riehlein said the area has been secured and that there was no danger to the wider public.
“There is no danger to the public,” said a spokesperson for the police.
Bavarian radio reported: “According to police information it is probably not a terrorist attack”.
A police spokesperson confirmed that there was no terrorist aspect to the attack.
The station was closed and the area around the shooting was cordoned off. Images showed armed police had been deployed, equipped with rifles, body armor and masks.
Germany was one of several European countries to be hit with attacks last year. In December, 12 people were killed after a driver plowed a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin. The attack was later claimed by ISIS.
In May 2016 a man killed a commuter and injured three others in a knife attack at Grafing railway station near Munich. The man had run amok and was later found to be mentally ill.