Munich attack: Iran urges global fight against terrorism

People leave the Olympia mall in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016 after several people have been killed in a shooting. (Source: AP)

Iran said on Saturday the international community should make fighting terrorism its top priority, after an 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman apparently acting alone killed at least nine people in Munich.

The attack was the third on civilians in Western Europe in eight days. The news comes at a very turbulent time, where terrorist attacks are coming one after the other. “Today, fighting terrorism, in any form and place, is an urgent demand of the world community …that should be considered as the top priority by all countries in an international consensus,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

The gunman opened fire near a busy shopping mall in the Bavarian capital on Friday evening. The attack, identified by German police as a dual national from Munich, was later found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound. German authorities said they had no immediate evidence of an Islamist motive.

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The southern city was in lockdown after the shootings, which saw panicked shoppers fleeing the Olympia mall as anti-terror police launched a massive operation to track down the assailants.

Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks in neighbouring France and Belgium claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.