Has our luck run out? That was the first thought in many German minds as news broke, just after 6pm, of a shooting spree at Munich’s popular Olympia Shopping Centre.
After years watching at a distance bloody attacks in the US, France, Belgium and Turkey, Germany has remained oddly untouched by extremist violence. And now a bloody week. Four days ago, the southern German state was horrified by an axe attack on a train near Würzburg left a four-member Hong Kong family fighting for their lives. After the 17-year-old Afghan perpetrator was shot dead by police, Islamic State was quick to posthumously link him to their terror campaign against the West – a claim police are still investigating.
Events in Munich were still unfolding last night but it is looking like the city’s worst attack since the notorious 1972 Olympic Games massacre.
The last decade has seen close shaves – suitcase bombers arrested on trains, terror cells broken up in late-night raids – but, until now, Germany has been spared as neighbouring countries were hit badly. Germany’s closest brush with Islamist terror to date was when Hamburg acted as the base of the conspirators behind the September 11th bombings.
But for years security officials in Berlin have said, quietly and glumly, that they knew Germany's luck would run out eventually.
Has that moment come? With nerves on edge after Monday’s axe attack – and last week’s Nice massacre – there was an eerie familiarity to the first shaky video images last night: they show people cowering in a shopping court as gunshots rang out, or streaming out of what appeared to be the shopping centre near the stadium of the 1972 Olympic Games.
Stay indoors
Yet despite the fast-moving situation, as Munich police urged people to stay indoors while they “deployed everything we have”, officials insisted over and over again that had no indication of any link to Islamist extremism.
In May, many here jumped to conclusions after a man stabbed another to death on a Munich suburban train. The perpetrator was a mentally ill German man.
Another unconfirmed mobile video yesterday evening suggested the shopping centre attack might be a repeat, showing a man on the flat roof of a car park or shopping centre engaged in heated exchange with the cameraman on his balcony.
“I am German,” the man is heard shouting. “I was born here . . . I was in residential care . . . ”
“You are wanker,” replied the cameraman, ducking out of sight as gunfire rings out.
Police declined to comment last night on the veracity of that or any other of the videos claiming to be of the attack.
Instead they dismissed claims of a city-centre shooting as a false alarm and urged people to stop spreading information on social media that might or confuse further an already confusing situation – or, worse, assist the perpetrators.
The first major world politician to react to the ongoing events in Munich was US president Barack Obama, telling journalists in Washington that "obviously our hearts go out to those injured".
As Chancellor Angela Merkel’s key officials gathered in the chancellery last night, though, there was no sign of the German leader. She had headed off on her summer holidays hours earlier. Exactly a year ago, she tried to sell a risky open-door refugee policy, telling them: “We can do this”.
Emergency accommodation
Images of Munich central station went around the world, as armies of volunteers welcomed exhausted Syrians, Afghans and others into emergency accommodation.
But the doubtful welcome developed serious cracks after New Year’s Eve sex attacks on women. Many of the perpetrators were non-German nationals and, though only a small number were recent asylum seekers, the mood began to tip.
After Monday’s axe attack, any Islamist link to last night’s Munich attacks could have devastating consequences for the German leader’s political credibility – and boost the burgeoning populist far-right’s demands to close German borders.
Germany’s elite GSG9 special forces arrived in Munich last night and local police said they were hoping for the best but fearing the worst. They said there had been no claim of responsibility by Islamic State or any other group. The only thing police could say for sure was that they had no perpetrator in custody.
As night fell the Bavarian capital – normally a buzzing tourist mecca in July – was in lockdown. The Olympic Shopping Centre was empty, as were many of the city’s famous beerhalls. In the pub beneath Munich city hall, an employee said they had locked themselves in with their guests for a long night of uncertainty.