- Title: Threat of right-wing terrorism 'very high' in Germany: minister
- Date: 10th October 2019
- Summary: COLOGNE, GERMANY (OCTOBER 10, 2019) (REUTERS) EXPERT ON FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISM, THOMAS GRUMKE TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (German) EXPERT ON FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISM, THOMAS GRUMKE, SAYING: "Unfortunately we have to see this act as part of a list of similar acts. And not just recently but when you think of 2011 and the National Socialist Underground (NSU) and of course the murder of the regional minister Luebcke (Walter Luebcke) and now this terrible act, you can unfortunately see a right-wing terrorist pattern." GRUMKE BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (German) EXPERT ON FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISM, THOMAS GRUMKE, SAYING: "If you want to look at it from a police perspective you can of course call it a lone case. And it is just that from what we know of this case. But this of course doesn't mean that this person was ideologically alone before the event. Quite the opposite. All of these suspects are part of a scene or embedded in a milieu. And the internet is worldwide so we are dealing with a global scene that contains such ideologies and so we have to deal with these acts on a global basis. When you think about the Christ Church attacks and similar attacks in the U.S. and these events are talked about in the scene and glorified and I am absolutely certain that this Halle attacker knew about these attacks and used them as a template." VARIOUS OF GRUMKE TALKING
- Embargoed: 24th October 2019 17:05
- Keywords: Halle synagogue shooting German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer far-right memorial
- Location: HALLE AND COLOGNE, GERMANY
- City: HALLE AND COLOGNE, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice
- Reuters ID: LVA003B0IK6KN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Germany's interior minister on Thursday warned that the threat of anti-Semitism and right-wing terrorism was very high after a gunman killed two people near a synagogue in the east of the country.
"We unfortunately have to face the truth, which - for some time already - is that the threat of anti-Semitism, right-wing extremism, and right-wing terrorism is very high," Horst Seehofer told a news conference in Halle.
A gunman suspected of attacking a German synagogue and killing two people nearby wanted to commit a massacre and hoped to incite others to copy him by live-streaming his deadly rampage, Germany's federal prosecutor said on Thursday.
The man, identified as Stephan B., modelled Wednesday's attack on a shooting spree at New Zealand mosques earlier this year in which 51 people were killed. He wanted to kill as many people as possible in the synagogue in the eastern city of Halle, the prosecutor said.
Dozens of people were at the synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, when the gunman tried to blast his way in - only to fail to breach the solid locked gates.
Far-right expert Thomas Grumke told Reuters that the act was part of a trend of right-wing extremism that was finding a global following and using worldwide attacks as inspiration.
Investigators found 4 kilograms of explosives in the suspect's car. In a video lasting more than 30 minutes that the attacker live-streamed from a helmet camera, he was heard cursing his failure to gain entry to the synagogue before shooting dead a woman passer-by in the street and a man in a nearby kebab restaurant.
Two other people were injured but not critically.
Most Jewish institutions in large German cities have a near-permanent police guard due to the threat of anti-Semitic attacks by both far-right activists and Islamist militants.
Josef Schuster, president of the council of Germany's 200,000-strong Jewish community, criticised police for not being present at the synagogue in Halle but said he had received a commitment that all Jewish institutions in the region would receive police protection for the long-term.
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