Scot tells of escape from city carnage
A Scot living in Munich told how he’d been due to go to the shopping mall where nine people were gunned down, minutes after the shooting began.
James O’Brien, 33, spoke yesterday of his relief he had narrowly avoided being in the area because he had decided to skip an appointment at an Apple store.
The business development manager, originally from Bearsden, near Glasgow, lives in the German city with wife Heather and son Mac.
He said the McDonald’s where the attacker struck is straight across the road from the main section of the shopping mall where the shootings took place.
He said: “We live about three underground stops away from where it happened.
“Normally I work from home on a Friday and I had made an appointment to go to the shopping mall to the Apple store.
“The shooting started about 10 or 15 minutes before I was due to be there. I phoned Heather who was still at her office quite far out the city to make sure she was okay.
“It was just a sense of relief for us personally that I was in my house and my son was with me.
“It’s horrifying to think what’s happened.”
Meanwhile, flags are flying at half mast in Edinburgh in solidarity with twin town Munich after the mall horror.
Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Donald Wilson has paid his condolences to the people of Munich, and the flags at Edinburgh City Chambers have been lowered.
He said: “Edinburgh has enjoyed a close relationship with Munich since becoming our very first twin city in 1954, so yesterday’s events are particularly moving.
“Our thoughts are with the families of those who died and are injured.”