On the 22nd of July - so just yesterday - a terror incident happened in Munich, Germany. I was completely shocked.
Brief background of myself: My nationality is german and we are having an apartment in Munich . This made this event feel very close and let me stop doing everything else than watching news.
order of events:
Friday at around 6 p.m. a shooting was reported close to the OEZ (Olympia Einkaufszentrum) a big shopping mall.
A time at which the OEZ is very crowded. The shooting started in a fast food restaurant close by and continued in the OEZ itself. The suspect(s) escaped through the roof of the OEZ.
The police was on site very shortly after the shooting. After it has been clear that several people are shot by one or more suspects the police initiated the "Sondersituation" protocol.
A crisis responsive team was established, hundreds of police man were called to duty, permanent air surveillance, GSG-9 (german special unit) started immediately their way to Munich by helicopter, hospitals activated their emergency protocol and prepared for mass casualties. All(!) public transport has been suspended within the whole city, key roads were block - this on a Friday evening which meant a complete traffic melt down.
The first thing the police had to deal with is to clarify the situation. Due to witnesses the police had to assume that there were 3 suspects. One trying to flee by foot and two trying to flee by car (witnesses saw a car leaving with high speed). In addition the police had to deal the whole evening with several reports of additional shootings in various places within Munich. Every report was taken very serious and always a response team was dispatched. Luckily all those additional reports revealed themselves as false reports based on overreaction. E.g. on one very famous place (Karlsplatz - Stachus) people started crying because they heard about the events around the OEZ, someone started running, others started running as well (lemming effect).
It took the police until 3 a.m. to clarify that there was only one offender - the two suspects leaving the crime scene by car were just innocents trying to get away from the crime scene. The offender itself ha shot himself about 1 mile from the OEZ and was found dead. 9 people died, 16 injured. My thoughts are with the families of the victims.
What is my resumé one day after? Do I feel insecure - and frightened?
The answer is (maybe surprisingly): No! And here is why.
Munich's police is known to be a very safe city with a very professional police force. How they managed this crisis just raised my trust level even more. I really think they did an outstanding job. Especially three things were just best practice in my point of view:
Consequence
Of course you are never fully prepared for such an event. The police men were very tense but still every move and action seemed to be very well coordinated. I always had the feeling they know what they are doing. To stop all public traffic and the key traffic routes within that short time frame shows that a clear escalation plan existed (no one would take such a decision on the fly I guess).
Also taking the decision right away to focus not only on the one crime scene but on the whole city was bold. Munich has 1.5 million inhabitants. All were told to go home immediately. Traffic was stopped everywhere. That really showed me the police is committed to contain the event and find the suspects at any costs. Also the brute number of police involved in a short time period gave me a feeling of security.national and international coordination
Very early after police arriving at the crime scene the GSG-9 was already activated. The GSG-9 needs to be coordinated national wide. In addition several hundred police forces from "Baden-Württemberg" (basically another state within Germany) were activated and send to support Munich police force - so I think it is safe to say national coordination worked just fine.
Munich is close to the Czech Republik and Austria (both less than 1 hour drive). Very soon after the shooting the Czech Republik and Austria increased their police present at the border to ensure suspect(s) aren't able to flee. Knowing how difficult international coordination can be I really think that was just amazing.use of media especially social media
The press officer did an amazing job - so often questions were repeated and speculations were made but the answers were always clear, precise and calming. That helped to avoid panic.
A lot of information and misinformation was around during the last hours. The professional use of social media by the police help to inform the public accordingly. The communicated immediately in multiple (I think 6+) languages during the whole event. So with all the rumors and misinformation the public had the chance to verify information at any time.
Will I be afraid to go to Munich in the future?
It seems that we have to accept that we are living in times where persons running amok and terror exists. It can happen anywhere and anytime. So what does it help to think to much about "where to travel?" when terror can happen just at the front door? If I can't avoid being at or close by such an terror/amok incident I want to be in an environment which is able to react professional and contain such an event as good as possible. So for me Munich just proofed to be such a place and made me feel more secure than ever!