A person was shot by police in an space filled with soccer supporters in Hamburg, Germany, forward of Poland’s Euro 2024 recreation with the Netherlands after threatening an officer with a choose axe, based on town’s police drive.
The Reeperbahn district, which was populated by 1000’s of Dutch supporters on the time, was cleared by police shortly earlier than 12:30 p.m. CET (6:30 a.m. ET) after the menace.
Riot police entered the world and shot the person accountable within the leg.
“He apparently tried to set hearth to this Molotov cocktail after which approached a number of folks together with cops, and the cops then needed to make use of their firearms,” Hamburg police spokesperson Sandra Levgruen mentioned.
“We assume that that is an remoted case, that’s, disconnected from soccer… I do not see any menace in any respect or any affect on the sport immediately.”
Levgruen added that the police “nonetheless haven’t any insights into the background, together with his motivation, which can have led to this, however the investigations will definitely present that.”
The person is a 39-year-old German, and should have been performing in a state of psychological agitation as he emerged from a snack bar brandishing the weapons, police mentioned in a press launch. He was hospitalized along with his accidents, based on one other Hamburg police spokesperson. Nobody else was damage, and the police investigation is ongoing.
A heavy police presence has been seen in Hamburg forward of the sport, however each units of supporters have combined peacefully forward of the incident.
German authorities have put police on excessive alert in the course of the event, which started on Friday and runs via July 14, for concern of attainable fan violence and terrorist assaults.
Info from the Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.