Gunman ‘filmed anti-Semitic attack’ near German synagogue
A gunman who allegedly shot two people dead near a German synagogue, went on an anti-Semitic rant as he filmed the rampage.
A gunman who allegedly shot and killed two people outside a German synagogue reportedly ranted about feminism, immigration and Jews in a live-stream of the rampage.
A 35-minute video was posted to live-streaming video platform, Twitch, after the gun attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, in which explosives were left near the synagogue and a grenade thrown into a Jewish cemetery in Halle, Germany.
In a clip from the video, the suspect, speaking in English called himself “Anon” and said he was a Holocaust denier during the racist diatribe.
“Feminism is the cause of declining birth rates in the West, which acts as a scapegoat for mass immigration, and the root of all these problems is the Jew,” he said, filming himself in a car before starting the attack.
The video was verified by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London after being shared online.
The suspect was later arrested after trying to flee in a taxi, sources told German media.
The filmed attack, which is still being circulated online, had echoes of Brenton Tarrant’s attack on a Christchurch mosque last March when the 28-year-old Australian live-streamed the murders of 51 people.
It comes as Germany’s top security official has described the shooting as an anti-Semitic attack, adding that prosecutors believe there may be a far-right motive.
In a statement, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer confirmed that a “heavily armed perpetrator” tried to force his way into a synagogue in the eastern German city.
Shots also were fired outside the synagogue and at a nearby kebab shop, killing two people. Police said they had arrested one person.
The news magazine Der Spiegel, without citing sources, reported that the suspected assailant is a 27-year-old man from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Halle is located.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the shooting, adding an expression of “solidarity for all Jews on the holy day of Yom Kippur”.
Mrs Merkel had “deep sympathy” for the victims’ loved ones, government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted, adding the chancellor’s “thanks to all the security forces who are still on the scene”.
Police said there is no longer an “acute” danger to the public after the shooting.
Residents had been warned to stay in their homes after the shooting. A police tweet several hours later said that people can now go back out into the streets, and that officers are still out in force.
Other video footage posted online showed a man wearing army gear and firing shots from behind a Volkswagen car.
Witnesses had earlier reported a man in similar clothing near a synagogue in Halle, two hours south of Berlin, where two people were killed.
Police gave no information about the arrested person or reasons why they thought the attack could have been carried out by more than one person.
According to reports, a gunman sought to enter a synagogue but security measures in place helped to “withstand the attack”, a Jewish community leader told Der Spiegel online.
Max Privorotzki, who heads the community in Halle, added that between 70 and 80 people were in the synagogue on a day when Jews around the world were marking Yom Kippur.
German anti-terror prosecutors took over the probe, which happened outside a synagogue and at a Turkish restaurant.
Following the gun rampage in which at least two people were killed, the spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office said the step had been taken given “the particular importance of the case” which he said involved “violent acts that affect the domestic security of the Federal Republic of Germany”.
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There were also reports that police had also arrested persons of interest on Tuesday night (local time) because of fears they were planning an attack.
The body of one man has been covered in the streets of Halle, while there were reports the other victim was a woman.
Witness Konrad Rösler, 28, was in a kebab shop when he saw the gunman.
“You have the man in army clothes with rifle. Then he threw something that looked like a grenade,” he told Bild.
“The thing has rebounded in the door frame. Then he shot into the glass. I found a toilet and locked myself up there. Then I heard another bang. At some point I heard the police and I made myself known and went out.”
A man interviewed on German television said he had been in a kebab shop when he saw a man with a helmet and a military jacket fire shots into the shop. Police said shots were also fired in Landsberg, about 15km from Halle. It wasn’t clear whether that shooting was related to the shooting in Halle.
Anti-Semitism has been on the rise in Germany, with reports of a rabbi being spat upon in Berlin last month.
And the word “Jew” has become a swear word in some school yards.
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