2024-09-13 09:24:34
An armed attack on the Israeli Consulate General in Munich is causing considerable concern. A terrorism researcher warns of a new wave of attacks.
Following the suspected terrorist attack by an Austrian on the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, terrorism researcher Peter Neumann fears a new wave of Islamist attacks in Europe. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, he spoke of a “dramatically increased number of such attacks”.
“We have had 21 attempted attacks in Western Europe and seven successful attacks in the last ten months,” he said. That is a fourfold increase compared to 2022. “The attacks are becoming more frequent, they are getting closer. That already indicates that something is brewing.”
This is another reason why he is pushing for a European database of potential threats. “We have still not managed to create a European database that lists all of these people, so that – if, for example, this attacker is caught during a traffic check in Bavaria – a hit is immediately reported,” he said.
“We still have a situation where the security authorities are not working together seamlessly,” criticized Neumann. “It should actually be self-evident that the Bavarian and German authorities know who the Austrian threats are, who is subject to a weapons ban.”
On Thursday morning, there was an exchange of fire between an armed man and the police in front of the Israeli Consulate General in Munich. The man, 18-year-old Emra I., was shot and died on the spot. Investigators believe it was a terrorist attack on the consulate. Thursday marked the 52nd anniversary of the attack on the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Munich Games.
It has since become known that the dead shooter had been investigated on suspicion that he may have become religiously radicalized. The man with Bosnian roots from the Salzburg region had also been banned from carrying weapons, which would not have expired until 2028 at the earliest, according to the Salzburg police.
Neumann spoke of a “huge security gap” and criticized “the fact that, for example, the Bavarian authorities clearly did not know who this person was, even though he lived just an hour’s drive from Munich.” The Munich police did not initially respond to a query as to whether the man was known to the Bavarian authorities.