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Munich attack 'obviously' inspired by Breivik, say police

Mass-shooter Ali David Sonboly may have been suffering from depression and is thought to have himself been victim of physical attacks in the past. Sonboly had no links to Islamic terrorism, police spokesman says.

Last updated on 23 July 2016, 2:53pm
7 min read
The attack is being attributed to 18-year-old Ali Sonboly
The attack is being attributed to 18-year-old Ali Sonboly
The elite counter-terrorism unit GSG9 flew to Munich to back up local police
The elite counter-terrorism unit GSG9 flew to Munich to back up local police
Mobile phone footage shows a man aiming fire at people outside a McDonalds restaurant
Mobile phone footage shows a man aiming fire at people outside a McDonalds restaurant
People stand outside the Munich shopping centre after it was evacuated. Photograph: @TimmKraeft/Twitter
People stand outside the Munich shopping centre after it was evacuated. Photograph: @TimmKraeft/Twitter

This story is being constantly updated

A police spokesman has told reporters that the gunman who killed 10 people in a shooting rampage in Munich yesterday evening was inspired by Anders Behring Breivik's murder of 77 people in Norway in 2011.

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae has said there was an "obvious" link between the new attack and Friday's fifth anniversary of Breivik's attack. A spokesman for the Munich prosecutor's office said the killer may also have been receiving psychiatric care.

"We are assuming that he may have suffered from depression," he said. "As far as we know he has no criminal record. In 2012 and 2010 he was a victim of an attack - on one occasion he was beaten by three young offenders."

The shooter has been named as Ali David Sonboly, referred to by German police as "David S." Officials have confirmed that all victims are from Munich. Sonboly grew up in Munich and officials are now looking into his "mental state".

The prosecutor has said that Sonboly sought treatment due to depression. Munich police said the gunman's room had been search and nothing was found linking him to Islamic State. Munich police president Hubertus Andrae told a press conference that "there are no indications that the gunman had extra help and he was not a refugee".

Police are probing claims which suggest Sonboly had lured some of his young victims to their deaths with a promise of free McDonald's food. A fake Facebook page reportedly told youngsters to gather in a specific fast food restaurant yesterday afternoon for the special offer. 

The lone gunman who killed nine people and wounded a further 21 at a shopping center in Munich before shooting himself was identified Sonboly, an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent, police have said. The shooting spree ended with the gunman killing himself.

The name Ali would seem to put paid to any discussion of the attack being ISIS-inspired. Ali is a Shia name, while ISIS, together with Al Qaeda and Boko Haram, are Sunni Muslims.

Munich police had declared a cautious “all-clear” early Saturday morning following a mass shooting in the shopping centre. The attack sparked a manhunt that shut down the entire city, as security forces hunted for a number of suspected attackers.

However, police confirmed in a press conference that the shooter had acted alone, and was dead.

A 15-year-old girl was among the dead, and several injured youngsters have been admitted to children’s hospitals in Munich, local media reported.

Police stopped trains, buses and trams, closed highways to private cars and ordered citizens to stay in their homes as they searched for suspected killers, as false rumours of fresh attacks sent panic through the city. The transport network was reopened following the all-clear.

One body found near the site of the shopping centre carnage appeared to be the gunman who killed himself, authorities said. They were using a bomb disposal robot to search the site for explosives and booby traps, a local reporter said.

The violence began just before 6pm, when a gunman opened fire at a McDonald’s restaurant outside the Olympia shopping centre, near the site of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Video apparently shot outside the restaurant showed passersby fleeing in terror as a gunman with a pistol surveyed the street then calmly and indiscriminately opened fire as terrified bystanders raced for cover.

The emergency services raced to the site within minutes, but the gunman had apparently vanished from the scene. Police feared there were several attackers searched across the city, and a painstaking operation was launched to secure the shopping mall where dozens of shoppers and workers were still thought to be hiding.

For several hours, as rumours about the number and location of attackers swept through Munich, and officers went slowly from store to store, there was a desperate vigil for loved ones trapped inside.

“My 23-year-old daughter was part of a group that locked themselves inside H&M to protect themselves. I spoke to her over the phone and she was crying, but then her battery ran out,” said one father, weeping himself. He asked not to be named because of fears for his daughter.

Asked if this was a terror attack, a police spokesman said: “If a man with a gun in a shopping centre opens fire and eight people are dead, we have to work on the assumption that this was not a normal crime and was a terrorist act.”

Peter Altmaier, one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest advisers, told local television that the chancellor will convene a meeting of her security council, made up of senior ministers, on Saturday. He mentioned past examples of both Islamist and far-right violence. The attack comes on the fifth anniversary of Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s slaughter of 77 mostly young people.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding more than an hour after the attack, an employee told Reuters by telephone. “Many shots were fired. I can’t say how many, but it’s been a lot,” said the employee, who declined to be identified.

“All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive.”

“I ran out, I was so afraid, and then some people brought me and several others into their garden and apartment where we found safety,” said Jennifer Hartel, who had lost a shoe fleeing the attack and was still shaking three hours after the violence.

The horror of the bloodshed was followed by hours of uncertainty, as police raced to track down the gunman captured on video and up to two other reported attackers.

Police used a smartphone warning system, Katwarn, to urge people to stay at home, and took to social media to ask locals and journalists not to share photos or video of police action to avoid helping any suspects on the run.

Munich residents responded by sharing pictures of pets and other cuddly animals under hashtags also used for news of the attack, and offering those stranded in the city a place to stay.

Hospitals were on emergency alert with staff, including doctors, surgeons and nurses, called in to await any casualties.

Among the parts of the city to be evacuated was Munich central station. People were reported to have screamed and scrambled over railway platforms as the police ordered them to leave the station.

Germany’s elite unit, its SAS equivalent GSG9, was flown in to support local security forces. Armed and masked but dressed otherwise unassumingly in T-shirts, trainers and shorts they were spotted in the vicinity of the local police who were on the scene within minutes of the first emergency call having been received.

It is the second attack in Bavaria in less than a week. Security forces have been on high alert after a teenage refugee attacked train passengers near the city of Würzburg with an axe and a knife, leaving two people in intensive care

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the attacker was likely to have acted alone.

Flags will fly at half mast on official buildings across Germany on Saturday. The country’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière – currently flying back from New York, will head straight to Munich on Saturday morning to form his own impression of events.

While the city was in lockdown and armed elite police poised on rooftops at locations around Munich, some older Germans were forced to recall the days when the country was terrorised by urban guerilla movement the Baader-Meinhof gang or Red Army Faction (RAF), and the terror attack on the 1972 Olympic Games.

The Olympia shopping centre is near the site of those Games, which were overshadowed by a terrorist attack in which 11 Israeli sportsmen and a German policeman were killed after being taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists.

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