Rhino: Agencies – German police killed a suspected Islamist gunman during a shootout near the Israeli consulate in Munich on Thursday, prompting politicians to emphasize the importance of protecting Israeli sites in the country.

Police said the gunman, an 18-year-old Austrian citizen, opened fire with an old Carbine rifle in Munich’s Maxvorstadt district near the consulate and a Nazi documentation center before being killed in a shootout with five police officers.

The incident came on the anniversary of a 1972 attack during the Munich Olympics in which Palestinian gunmen killed 11 Israeli athletes.

A spokesman for Vienna’s interior ministry said the teenager was already known to Austrian authorities as a suspected Islamist. He added that police were informed last year about his suspected membership of an extremist group.