A man brandishing an ax in a street crowded with soccer fans was shot dead by police on Sunday in Hamburg, Germany, just hours before the city hosted a European soccer championship match.
The man threatened the police with “a pickaxe and an incendiary device,” a police spokesperson said on Sunday. Police shot the man, who was injured and treated, they confirmed.
The incident took place in Hamburg’s entertainment district, a part of the city known as the Reeperbahn that is full of restaurants and bars, and in an area filled with thousands of Dutch fans coming to see the Netherlands face Poland on Sunday afternoon.
According to a Hamburg police spokeswoman, the man came out of a small restaurant with a double-bladed ax and a firebomb and threatened officers who were nearby.
Police first deployed pepper spray and fired a warning shot into the air before shooting the attacker, according to Henning Hünerbein, a German journalist who was filming outside the restaurant.
Police said the man was injured, but could not provide further information on his condition. He was placed in an ambulance after the shooting and driven away. No fans or police officers were injured.
The filming location was a 10-minute walk from the city’s official fan zone, which at the time had thousands of fans. It took place on the third day of the month-long tournament, which brings together the continent’s 24 best teams every four years.
The match between Poland and the Netherlands at the city’s Volksparkstadion, with a capacity of around 57,000, was one of three games scheduled for Sunday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
