German police shoot gunman before Euro match | National

German police shot and wounded a man after he threatened passers-by and police officers with a hammer and a Molotov cocktail on Sunday before a Euro 2024 match in Hamburg, officials said.

“On Sunday around noon (10:00 GMT), a man threatened several passers-by and police officers with a slate hammer and a Molotov cocktail,” police said in a statement.

Police then shot and injured the attacker, who “may have been suffering from a psychiatric crisis,” the statement added.

Hamburg was teeming with football fans at the time ahead of the Euro 2024 match between Poland and the Netherlands.

However, police said there was no indication of a link to the Euro 2024 clash.

The man came out of a snack bar with weapons in his hands and approached passers-by and police officers present at the scene “in a threatening manner”, police said.

When he did not comply with the request to shoot them, the police shot him.

A police spokesperson told AFP he had been shot in the leg.

He was treated at the scene by rescuers and then transported to hospital.

The suspect was identified as a 39-year-old German man, police said, adding that his motives were not known.

Police earlier told X, formerly Twitter, that the incident had sparked a “major operation” in the St Pauli area.

It happened near the Reeperbahn station, more than a kilometer from the city's official fan zone.

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