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Less than two weeks after a truck plowed into revelers in the French city of Nice, killing 84 and injuring more than 300, and one week after an axe-wielding man injured five on a German train, Munich suffered another blow Friday as a gunman killed 10 in a downtown shopping center.
The shooter, identified as an 18-year-old German-Iranian, held dual citizenship of Germany and Iran and had lived inMunichfor more than two years, Munichpolice chief Hubertus Andrae saidSaturday.
Three of the injured are in serious conditions, and some children were wounded, Andrae said.
The attacker was likely to have acted alone. "There is currently no evidence of other attackers," Andrae said, adding that "the background and motive of the attack remain unclear."
Atotal of 2,300 policemen and special forces were deployed in the action after the attack, including forces from neighboring federal states and Austria, according to Andrae.
Public transport service in the city was suspended after the attack on Friday but was restored later.
According to a source who was near the shopping center at the time of the attack, other public areas in downtown Munich went under a lockdownuntil11 pm local time, after the Police have thoroughlyscanned the vicinity.
Though an official confirmation on the nature of the attack is yet to be made, German police said the attack carried traits of a terroristattack.
Europe has long been regarded as one of the safetest regions in the world, but after the recent string of bloodshed doubt circling Europe’s security has erupted as people started to question what went wrong.
According Wu Liming, an analyst familiar with European security, gun control sticks out as a major risk in Germany.
Though Germany has one of the world’s strictest gun-control legislations, illegal guns nevertheless can make their way to the country through its porous border with other Schengen countries, Wu said, adding it’s anyone’s guess how many under-the-radar firearms exist in Western Europe.
In addition to the loop holedgun control, the lax security on public transportations and in other public places is also checked on the ingredient list of terror attacks.
Unlike many countries in the world, neither Germany nor France places security check for passengers of subways, trains and buses, which explained why a deadly axe was easily taken aboard a train or a gun into a shopping center.
Thirdly, Munich has become a theater where members of various terror groups around the world come to play.
One such example is the “World UyghurCongress,”an Munich-based terror group that was behind the Urumqi riots in July 2009, which saw hundreds of civilians slaughtered in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region.
Munich may be proud of its freedom values, but when that tolerant policy becomes an umbrella for terrorism the city is inviting trouble onto its own doorsteps.
