2 dead in synagogue shooting in Germany: report

Police said a gunman killed at least two people near a synagogue in Halle, Germany, on Wednesday, according to the BBC.

“Our forces have detained one person,” Halle police said in a tweet. “We remain alert, however. We have deployed forces in and around Halle and are trying to stabilize the situation until we have all the relevant information.”

Unsere Kräfte haben eine Person festgenommen.

Bleiben Sie trotzdem weiterhin wachsam.

Wir sind mit starken Kräften in und um #Halle präsent und stabilisieren die Lage, bis alle Informationen gesichert vorliegen.#hal0910

— Polizei Halle (Saale) (@Polizei_HAL) October 9, 2019

A local train station has been closed amid the ongoing police presence. Police said other suspects are believed to have driven away from the scene. A witness also told German television that a gunman in camouflage also opened fire on a nearby kebab shop with an assault rifle.

{mosads}“The man came up to the Doner shop, he threw something like a grenade. It didn’t explode, and he opened fire with an assault rifle. The man behind me must have died … I hid in the toilet,” the witness told a TV reporter.

The shooting occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, while numerous synagogues have been on high alert internationally due to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents.

October will mark the first anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, which left 11 people dead in the deadliest anti-Semitic crime in U.S. history.