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A manhunt is underway after two people were shot dead near a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle.
Key points:
- German police are still looking for suspects who fled after a synagogue shooting in Halle in the country’s east
- Local newspaper Bild reported a grenade was also thrown onto a Jewish cemetery
- Police said they had detained one person
Local police said they were still looking for suspects who had fled the scene in a car after the Wednesday afternoon attack and urged residents to stay in their homes or indoors.
One person had been detained, police said.
German daily newspaper Bild said on its website the shooting took place in front of a synagogue, reporting that a hand grenade was also thrown onto a Jewish cemetery.
An eyewitness told n-tv television that a perpetrator had also fired shots into a kebab shop in Halle.
«According to initial findings, two people were killed in Halle,» police said on Twitter.
«There were several shots. The alleged perpetrators have fled with a vehicle. We are searching urgently and ask citizens to remain in their homes.»
The attack occurred on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism when observers fast for more than 24 hours to atone for sins.
National rail operator Deutsche Bahn said the main train station in Halle had been closed.
Anti-Semitism is especially sensitive in Germany, which during World War II was responsible for the genocide of six million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust.
Despite comprehensive de-Nazification in the post-war era, fears of resurgent anti-Semitic hatred have never completely gone away.
Occasional past attacks have ranged from the scrawling of Nazi swastikas on gravestones to fire bombings at synagogues and even several murders.
In recent years, cases of assault or verbal abuse — in some cases directed against people wearing traditional Jewish skullcaps — have raised an outcry.
Reuters/AP
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