Detectives in Austria are probing whether a teenager who travelled to Germany to attack the Israeli consulate in Munich had contacts in a growing Islamist scene.
Police searched the home of the 18-year-old gunman as they revealed he was investigated for possible terrorist involvement last year. An Austrian citizen with Bosnian roots, he was banned from buying weapons for five years but escaped criminal charges.
It is believed he had extremist views and had played online video games in the character of an Al Nusra supporter, a Syrian militant group. He evaded the weapons ban by buying a vintage rifle for €350 ($388) and a bayonet for €50 ($56).
On Thursday, just a day after acquiring the weapons, he drove over the border to Munich and opened fire near the Israeli consulate. He was shot dead by German police, who called it an attempted terrorist attack.
It was the second terrorism case in a month involving an Austrian teenager apparently radicalised online, after a CIA tip-off foiled an alleged ISIS plot against a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. Experts have told The National of a trend towards ever younger extremists in Austria.
In a separate case in Germany, a 29-year-old Albanian was arrested early on Friday for allegedly trying to kill police officers in a night-time attack. Investigators said he appeared to have radical Islamist motives and had an ISIS flag on the wall of his apartment.
Extremists on social media "are very effective in preaching, and convincing young people living in a situation of crisis, giving a direction of where to go, where to 'save myself'," said Rudiger Lohlker, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Vienna.
Israeli consulate shooting in Germany – in pictures
The Munich suspect was "close to ISIS at least in spirit", said Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the German state of Bavaria. Whether he had recent contacts in the extremist scene is "a subject that the Austrian authorities are intensively researching", he told local broadcasters.
Bavarian prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann the working theory was that the gunman “acted out of Islamist or anti-Semitic motives", although they have yet to find any message that would pinpoint his thinking.
In February 2023, while still at school, the gunman came to the attention of police over alleged threats against fellow pupils. This led to the discovery of potential extremist links, with authorities suspecting radical religious views and an interest in weapons and explosives.
However, Austrian prosecutors closed the investigation in April 2023 and did not charge the teenager with involvement in a terrorist organisation. He was given a weapons ban until "at least the start of 2028" and had not reappeared on the police's radar by the time of the shooting.
Having taken his firearm and a stock of ammunition to Germany, he parked at a museum in a former Nazi headquarters near the Israeli consulate and fired several shots before he was killed by police. No other injuries were reported.
The attack came 52 years to the day since Israeli athletes were taken hostage by Palestinian militants at the Munich 1972 Olympics. They later died in a failed rescue attempt. Detectives were considering whether the anniversary was part of the gunman's motive.
The gunfire near an Israeli mission comes as the threat of Islamist extremism has "taken on a new dynamic since October 7 last year,” when Hamas attacked Israel, said Austrian Interior Gerhard Karner at a press conference on Friday.
The suspect's house in Neumarkt am Wallersee, Austria, was searched by detectives in forensic gear as police revealed he had driven over the border to Munich, a journey of about 160km, on the morning of the attack.
Franz Ruf, director of public security at Austria’s interior ministry, said no weapons or obvious ISIS propaganda were found at the home, but devices were seized which will be examined.
The teenager's parents appeared to be unaware of his actions as they reported him at 10am on Thursday after he failed to turn up for work. He had been fatally shot about an hour earlier in Munich.
"We must now do everything in our power to combat Islamism effectively," Israel's ambassador in Germany, Ron Prosor, said after the attack. "Those who incite 18 year olds to terrorism must not be allowed to get away with it."
Both Germany and Austria are under heavy pressure to get tougher on extremism, as Germany reels from a deadly Islamist knife attack in Solingen on August 23 and Austria prepares to vote in a general election on September 29.
The Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer says he will insist on widening surveillance powers to messenger apps in any coalition talks, after the Taylor Swift plot exposed cracks in a counter-terrorism policy that was seen as one of Europe's toughest.
Germany has announced a task force on tackling Islamism and plans to widen the use of facial recognition, background checks and bans on extremist organisations. Ministers are also launching a crackdown on illegal migration and hope to resume deportations to Syria.
