Wednesday, October 9, 2019

This is another reason to never let Muslim scum enter civilized countries. Just don't let the stupid fucking assholes get in.

WORLD

EUROPE

Wall Street Journal - Two Killed in Germany Shooting After Apparent Failed Attack on Synagogue


Suspect arrested by police in eastern city of Halle after bid to access temple on Yom Kippur

By Petra Sorge, Sara Germano and Bertrand Benoit

Updated October 9, 2019 12:29 pm ET

BERLIN—Two people were shot dead and a suspect was arrested after what appeared to be a failed attack on a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle, according to police and witnesses.

Police said a woman had been shot dead on the street near the synagogue, as had a man in a kebab restaurant.

But a much larger death toll seemed to have been averted, according to the testimony of a witness who saw the attacker try and fail to gain access to the synagogue where members of Halle’s Jewish community were gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Christiane Prinz, 49, who owns a hairdressing salon opposite the synagogue said the man, dressed in a dark green military outfit, a helmet and a vest, had shot repeatedly at the gates with what she took to be a pump gun.

The man then lobbed a projectile over the gate into the synagogue’s front yard and cemetery, after which there was a loud bang.

“There was a blast, there was smoke. Then the shooting happened,” said Ms. Prinz, adding that she later saw a body on the ground. “It was so unreal. We locked ourselves up, as we still had two customers in the shop. The attacker quickly ran away.”

Soon after, Myriam Skalka, 24, was standing at a crossroads near the scene of the second fatal shooting at the kebab restaurant when she saw a suspect firing a gun.

“He wore a steel helmet with a camera on top,” said Ms. Skalka, adding that the attacker had then shot at a police car.

The leader of Halle’s Jewish community, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The office of the general federal prosecutor, which deals with serious crime, has taken over the murder investigation because of the seriousness of the attack and the risks to domestic security, a spokesman said, declining to confirm whether it was treating the case as a terror act.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many suspects were involved. The spokesman said there were indications from witnesses about several perpetrators.

The city of Halle, located some 24 miles from Leipzig, declared an emergency, and all fire departments were on alert, with residents advised not to leave buildings or homes until further notice, a spokesman for the city said. Public-transportation services in the area had been altered, the city noted.

Germany’s border police said they were stepping up controls at airports and train stations around central Germany and conducting checks on routes to nearby Poland and the Czech Republic.

“We can’t rule out the possibility of a group planning multiple actions,” said a spokesman for the police in Dresden, some 90 miles south-east of Halle.

The U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard. A. Grenell, tweeted that his officials had identified 10 American citizens who were inside the Halle synagogue at the time of the attack. All were unharmed.

In Berlin, meanwhile, the city’s government said it had ordered police to step up security around Jewish community buildings. Synagogues, Jewish schools, memorials and other buildings associated with the community normally have permanent police protection across the country.

Jewish leaders in Germany have complained about a rise in anti-Semitic acts in the country, in particular after the arrival of hundreds of thousands of mainly Middle Eastern migrants since 2015.

Authorities also raised the alarm this year about violent racist and antisemitic groups. A suspected neo-Nazi terror cell went on trial for terrorism on Sept. 30 for allegedly planning an attack in Berlin.

A pro-immigration politician was killed in June and a bomb targeted the house of another liberal politician in July. The same month, an Eritrean immigrant was gunned down on the street by a self-declared xenophobe.

Police on Monday arrested a 32-year-old Syrian refugee suspected of stealing a truck and driving it into traffic in Limburg, western Germany, leaving eight people wounded. Authorities aren’t currently treating that incident as a terror attack.

In Leipzig, four police minivans and two cars were parked outside Brodyer Synagogue. Police officers stood guard, equipped with machine guns, bulletproof vests and helmets.

Küf Kaufmann, chairman of the Jewish community of Leipzig, walked up to the officers to make sure they would remain there until the Yom Kippur service finished later on Wednesday.

The end of service was to coincide with a large street festival in the city, which was also getting additional police protection, according to an officer.

“It’s sad that we live in a time where people shoot others on the street,” Mr. Kaufmann said. “We need more police here so that our community feels they are being looked after.”

Leipzig’s Jewish community of roughly 1,200 is the largest after Berlin in eastern Germany. The Brodyer Synagoge, nestled between two buildings, is the only one that wasn’t burned during the November 1938 pogrom known as Kristallnacht.

—Ruth Bender in Leipzig, Germany, contributed to this article.

Write to Sara Germano at sara.germano@wsj.com and Bertrand Benoit at bertrand.benoit@wsj.com

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