A person wielding an ax on a road crowded with soccer followers was shot by the police on Sunday in Hamburg, Germany, solely hours earlier than town was to host a sport on the European Championship.
The person threatened law enforcement officials with “a pickax and an incendiary gadget,” a police spokesman stated on Sunday. When he didn’t reply to warnings, the police stated, he was shot by officers.
The person was injured and was being handled, they confirmed. No followers or law enforcement officials had been injured.
The incident passed off in Hamburg’s leisure district, a bit of town often known as the Reeperbahn that’s stuffed with eating places and bars. On the time, the realm was filled with 1000’s of followers who had arrived to see the Netherlands play Poland on Sunday afternoon.
In keeping with a spokeswoman for the Hamburg police, the person got here out of a small restaurant with a double-bladed ax and a firebomb and threatened officers close by.
The police initially deployed pepper spray and fired a warning shot into the air earlier than taking pictures the attacker, in response to Henning Hünerbein, a German journalist who was filming outdoors the restaurant. A number of pictures might be heard, a sudden and jarring intrusion into what had been a festive lunchtime ambiance.
The police stated that the person had been injured, however they might not give additional updates on his situation. He was positioned in an ambulance after the taking pictures and pushed away.
The location of the taking pictures was a 10-minute stroll from town’s official fan zone, which was thronged with many extra 1000’s of followers on the time, and a brief prepare trip from the 57,000-seat Volksparkstadion, the place the Netherlands and Poland had been to fulfill within the first of three event video games set for Sunday.
The taking pictures got here on the third day of the monthlong event, which brings collectively the continent’s finest 24 groups each 4 years, and amid a heightened police presence.
The is a growing story and might be up to date.
