Hours before Hamburg was scheduled to host its opening match of the Euro 2024 soccer tournament, authorities claimed that German police had shot a man who had attacked them with a pickaxe and an explosive device.
Hamburg police said that after making threats against officers in the well-known St. Pauli neighborhood, the suspect was shot in the leg. Medical attention is being given to the suspect.
The incident happened 700 meters (0.4 miles) from a Euro 2024 fan zone, but according to the police, it had nothing to do with Poland’s impending encounter against the Netherlands.
Read Also: Record $2.8 Billion Cocaine Seizure by German Law Enforcement
According to a police spokeswoman, supporters of the Dutch team had completed a “fan walk” close to the incident site earlier in the day. By the time the man started threatening police officers, the walk had ended and not many fans were still there.
The event is not thought to be connected to terrorism, according to police.
The month-long event kicked off on Friday and is being hosted by Germany for hundreds of thousands of foreign supporters.
According to Reuters, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declared on Thursday that the police were ready for acts of violence linked to hooliganism and attacks with Islamic inspiration.
Although no particular threats had been uncovered, she added that officials had the “Islamist scene firmly in their sights.”
