- Title: Day of shame and disgrace - says Steinmeier.
- Date: 10th October 2019
- Summary: HALLE, GERMANY (OCTOBER 10, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KEBAB SHOP ACROSS THE ROAD FROM SYNAGOGUE WHERE SHOTS HAVE ALSO BEEN FIRED BULLET HOLE IN WINDOW SIGN, READING (German) "I will not let an ideology that is based on hate destroy the city that we all love. We think of the victims and their loved ones, but not the perpetrators and the fear. The shocked citizens of Halle." PEOPLE LOOKING AT SIGN AND PAN TO KEBAB SHOP POLICE VARIOUS OF BULLET HOLES IN WALL MEDIA OUTSIDE OF KEBAB SHOP VARIOUS OF WALL OF SYNAGOGUE GERMAN PRESIDENT FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER ARRIVING WITH FLOWERS STEINMEIER GREETING RABBI / LAYING FLOWERS AT WALL OF SYNAGOGUE STEINMEIER AND RABBI PAYING RESPECTS AT WALL MEDIA AND PAN TO STEINMEIER ENTERING SYNAGOGUE POLICE OUTSIDE SYNAGOGUE STEINMEIER LEAVING SYNAGOGUE MEDIA SURROUNDING STEINMEIER (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN PRESIDENT FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER, SAYING: "This is a day of shame and disgrace. It fills us all with horror that an attack took place in our country, a country with this history, on a full synagogue on the highest Jewish day of celebration." STEINMEIER SEEN IN DISPLAY OF SMARTPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN PRESIDENT FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER, SAYING: "It is not enough to just condemn such a cowardly attack. It is clear that state is responsible for its Jewish communities in Germany. And it is equally clear that the entire society must take a stand on this. Show solidarity with the Jewish citizens in our country. As the citizens of Halle did last night and will continue to be doing. And we must show our solidarity not only on days like this and event like this." MEDIA STEINMEIER WALKING AWAY MEDIA SURROUNDING RABBI MAX PRIVOROZKI, HEAD OF HALLE'S JEWISH COMMUNITY (SOUNDBITE) (German) MAX PRIVOROZKI, HEAD OF HALLE'S JEWISH COMMUNITY, SAYING: QUESTION FROM OFF: ARE YOU AFRAID? "Not me. But others are. Yesterday, I was afraid. It was horrible yesterday, you cannot imagine." QUESTION FROM OFF: CAN YOU GIVE US AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY? "I already did that many times and it gives me no joy recalling that again. But I can tell you that it was very horrible. We did not know whether we would come out of the synagogue alive. It was very dangerous." MEDIA IN FRONT OF ENTRANCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS CHRISTINA FEIST, SAYING: "The next thing was that the perpetrator tried to get into the synagogue. And the hazzan (cantor in Hebrew) send us outside and upstairs, and then he barricaded the door with a couple of other men. Someone locked and barricaded the back door, I closed the middle door. And we all went upstairs. And in the meantime, the police was called, there were also people living here who called. Inevitably. And some of us on the inside called as well. But it still took more than 15 minutes for somebody to get here." FEIST TALKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) EYEWITNESS CHRISTINA FEIST, SAYING: "It was well organized once the police got here as far as I am concerned. With evacuation and such. Until then, and regarding "What happened?" - it was more or less chaos. And I am still processing it, but I have to say that I still haven't totally understood what happened." POLICE MEDIA AT ENTRANCE
- Embargoed: 24th October 2019 12:25
- Keywords: Halle shooting Jewish community Steineier eyewitness
- Location: HALLE, GERMANY
- City: HALLE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA001B0IJZGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Germans need to stand together against extremist violence and protect Jewish life, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday after visiting a synagogue where a gunman began an attack a day earlier in which he killed two people.
Though the gunman did not get into the synagogue in Wednesday's attack, he went on to kill two bystanders in a live-streamed rampage, which appeared to be modelled on last year's gun attack on a New Zealand mosque.
A military source said the suspected perpetrator, German national Stephan B., had done military service, but received no special training. His full name cannot be published under German privacy laws.
"Today is a day of shame and disgrace," Steinmeier said outside the synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle.
"It fills us all with horror that an attack took place in our country, a country with this history, on a full synagogue on the highest Jewish day of celebration," she added.
In a video of more than 30 minutes that the attacker livestreamed from a helmet camera, he was heard cursing his failure to enter the synagogue before shooting dead a woman passer-by in the street and a man inside a nearby kebab restaurant.
Two other people were injured but regional broadcaster MDR said their condition was not critical.
Most Jewish institutions in Germany's large cities have a near-permanent police guard due to occasional anti-Semitic attacks by both far-right activists and Islamist militants.
In the event, the synagogue's solid locked gates and high walls provided ample protection against the attacker's seemingly improvised weapons.
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