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Teen behind Munich mass shooting ‘inspired by Anders Breivik’

MUNICH SHOOTING RAMPAGE: WHAT WE KNOW

• 10 dead including the gunman and 27 injured in ‘rampage’ in Munich
• Gunman identified as Ali David Sonboly - born and raised in Germany
• Authorities raid gunman's home, find no links to ISIS
• Attack labelled 'classic shooting rampage'
• Europe on high alert for terrorism in wake of bombings in France and Belgium

The teen responsible for the fatal shootings of nine people in a terrifying gun rampage in Munich, was reportedly obsessed with mass killers and terrorists like Norwegian right-wing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik.

Police have not elaborated on the connection between the two mass killers, so it was unclear if Ali David Sonboly possessed similar right-wing beliefs as Breivik, or was simply inspired by his rampage in Norway.

The Munich shopping centre killings took place on the fifth anniversary of Breivik’s attacks in Oslo.

Ali David Sonboly has been identified as the gunman.
Ali David Sonboly has been identified as the gunman.
Anders Breivik is responsible for the Oslo mass killings in July 2011. Photo: Yahoo News.
Anders Breivik is responsible for the Oslo mass killings in July 2011. Photo: Yahoo News.

On July 22, 2011 Breivik detonated a bomb in the centre of Oslo, killing eight.

As security rushed to the scene, he donned a police uniform and travelled to the island of Utoeya, where a summer camp for young political activists was being held.

On arrival he gathered the young people before shooting them.

69 people were shot and killed at the camp.

On Saturday Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae told the press Sonboly’s motive was still ‘fully unclear’, however police had located written material about a ‘shooting rampage’ in his room at his parents’ home.

Police found a book called ‘Rampage in Head: Why Students Kill’.

It's said Sonboly was obsessed with mass killers like Breivik. Photo: Yahoo US
It's said Sonboly was obsessed with mass killers like Breivik. Photo: Yahoo US

Sonboly has since been described as being ‘obsessed’ with mass shootings.

His classmates told German media that he had uploaded a photo of Breivik as his profile picture on WhatsApp.

Police were investigating whether Sonboly lured his victims using a fake Facebook account under a girl’s name ‘Selina Akim’.



It’s suspected he used the account to invite people to McDonald’s with the promise of free food before the attack.

The teenager behind the Munich shooting rampage: Ali Sonboly. Photo: Daily Telegraph UK
The teenager behind the Munich shooting rampage: Ali Sonboly. Photo: Daily Telegraph UK

Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said the gunman did have a history of mental illness and was said to be seeing someone for professional help.


German media identifies shooter as teenager Ali Sonboly

German media has identified the 18-year-old Munich gunman who killed nine people and injured dozen more before shooting himself as Ali David Sonboly.

Details about the shooter's identity come after German authorities said they found no links to ISIS or refugees after raiding his house where he lived with his parents.

The son of a taxi driver and born and raised in Munich, Sonboly was not known to police and had no criminal record.

Details about gunman have emerged after police commandos raided the teen's home that he shared with his parents in the suburb of Maxvorstadt.

A number of items regarding camouflage and weapons were seized from the house but police were emphatic the man was not linked to terror group ISIS.

Police labelled the attack a "classic shooting rampage", adding it was not an act of terrorism.

"There is absolutely no link to the Islamic State," Andrae said.

The gunman was also confirmed to be German born, with Iranian heritage.

Investigations were continuing into how the man was able to acquire the weapons.

Locals described the teen as a "quiet guy".

"A friend of mine went to school with him and said he was rather a quiet guy," the neighbour told newspaper Bild.

"He recognised him from the videos from the scene."


Munich gunman 'bullied for seven years'

The gunman who killed nine people in the streets of Munich, Germany, before shooting himself told a bystander he was "German" and bullied for seven years.

In a video shared on Twitter, the 18-year-old gunman who has been confirmed as the gunman spoke to an unknown man for some moments in a brief respite from the rampage.

Civilians moved through Munich streets as police and commandos lock down the city. Source: AP
Civilians moved through Munich streets as police and commandos lock down the city. Source: AP

The conversation, translated from German, carried on as the unnamed gunman walked atop a rooftop car park.

The other man stands upon a balcony, shouting insults and asking questions of the armed mass murderer.

The gunman told the man on the balcony he was bullied for seven years, leading to some speculation that attack was an act of revenge.

"Because of you I was bullied for seven years... and now I have to buy a gun to shoot you," he tells the unknown man in the video.

This is a translation via News Corp and the Daily Mail:

Balcony man: "You f***king a***e you..."
Gunman: "Because of you I was bullied for seven years..."
Balcony man: "You w***r you. you're a w***r'
Gunman: "...and now I have to buy a gun to shoot you"
Balcony man: "A gun! F***k off! Your head should be cut off you a***e"

Gunman and the balcony man begin shouting over each other.

Balcony man, speaking to those filming: "He's got a gun here the guy has one"
Unseen voice: "F***g Turks!"
Balcony man: "F***g foreigner"
Balcony man to another person: "Ey! He's got a gun! He has loaded his gun. Get the cops here. He's walking around here the w***r!"
Gunman: "I am German."
Balcony man: "You're a w***r is what you are"
Gunman: "Stop filming!"
Balcony man: "A w***r is what you are. What the f***k are you doing?"
Shooter: "Yeah what, I was born here."
Balcony man: "Yeah and what the f***k you think you're doing?"
Gunman: "I grew up here in the Hartz 4 (unemployment benefits in Germany) area."

Balcony man and the shooter talk over each other again.

Balcony man: "Yeah treatment is something for you"
Gunman: "I haven't done anything here for (unintelligible) ... Please shut your mouth"
Balcony man: "You c***t you"
Balcony man to people nearby: "Hey, he's on the upper floor here."

Balcony man takes cover as the gunman starts firing again.
Balcony man: "They must have been s******g into your head"
Gunman: "They have not. They have not, that's the thing. They have not."

WARNING, DISTRESSING: Eyewitness films horrifying footage of Munich shooting rampage.

If you are concerned about the mental health of yourself or a loved one, seek support and information by calling Lifeline 13 11 14, Mensline 1300 789 978, or Kids Helpline 1800 551 800


Did shooter use fake Facebook account to lure victims to attack site?

Police are investigating whether a fake Facebook advertisement, which offered free food at the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre McDonald’s, where the gunman launched his attack, is linked to the shooting.

There were 27 people were taken to hospital following the shooting, three were fighting for life and 13 were being treated.

Police say 10 people are dead after gunmen opened fire at a shopping centre in Munich. Photo: AP
Police say 10 people are dead after gunmen opened fire at a shopping centre in Munich. Photo: AP
It's believed the ninth body is one of the gunmen.
It's believed the ninth body is one of the gunmen.

Witnesses told CNN the gunman screamed "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire at the shopping centre.

A woman known as "Loretta" claimed she was inside the McDonald’s when a man with a gun started shooting after leaving a bathroom.

“I come out of the toilet and I hear like an alarm, boom, boom, boom. He's killing the children. The children were sitting to eat. They can't run,” she told CNN.

She claimed she had been in the bathroom with her eight-year-old son at the same time as the shooter.

German police have confirmed nine people have been killed in the attack. Photo: Reuters.
German police have confirmed nine people have been killed in the attack. Photo: Reuters.


Many shots were fired: witness

As special forces rushed to the scene, some people remained holed up in the Olympia shopping center.

"Many shots were fired, I can't say how many but it's been a lot," said a shop worker hiding in a store room inside the mall.

The woman said she had seen a shooting victim on the floor who appeared to be dead or dying.

Another employee at a different shop, Harun Balta, told local media: "We are still stuck inside the mall without any information, we're waiting for the police to rescue us."


Violence in Europe continues

Nine people have been killed in a shooting rampage in Munich.
Nine people have been killed in a shooting rampage in Munich.

The attack in Munich is the third major act of violence against civilians in Europe in eight days.

Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway in which he killed 77 people. Breivik is seen as a hero by some far-right militants in Europe and America.


Video shows man in black open fire outside McDonalds

A video posted online – whose authenticity could not be confirmed – showed a man dressed in black outside a McDonalds by the roadside, drawing a handgun and shooting towards members of the public.

Police said witnesses had seen shooting both inside the mall and on nearby streets.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Munich's main railway station was also evacuated. BR said police had also sealed off many highways north of Munich had been shut down and people were told to leave them.

Video footage claiming to be of the gunman was uploaded to Twitter.
Video footage claiming to be of the gunman was uploaded to Twitter.

But the shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany on Monday, injuring five people, two of them critically.


IS supporters celebrate Munich attack

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the rampage on social media.

"Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men," read one tweet.

"The Islamic state is expanding in Europe," read another.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper's Friday edition before the mall attack that there was "no reason to panic but it's clear that Germany remains a possible target".

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.


German train rampage: 'Inspired' by IS'

Friday's attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an ax rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" attacker who appeared to have been "inspired" by the Islamic State group but was not a member of the jihadist network.

Authorities said he shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) three times as he ran through the carriage slashing passengers on the train near the southern city of Wuerzburg.

The attacker is believed to be either Afghan or Pakistani and investigators are still trying to determine his identity.

The train rampage triggered calls by politicians in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into the country.

The assailant had arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Germany in June 2015 and had been staying with a foster family in the region of the attack for the last two weeks.

A record 1.1 million migrants and refugees were let in to Germany last year, with Syrians making up the largest group followed by Afghans.

In the latest attack in France, 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, in the Riviera city of Nice last week.

It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November and the shootings at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

In March, Islamic State-claimed suicide bomb attacks at Brussels airport and a city metro station left 32 people dead.

In May in Germany, a mentally unstable 27-year-old man carried out a knife attack on a regional train in the south of the country, killing one person and injuring three others.