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Gunman on the loose after woman shot dead in Offenbach

A woman has died after being shot in Offenbach, east of Frankfurt, in the state of Hesse.

Published: 10 May 2019 09:11 CEST

Gunman on the loose after woman shot dead in Offenbach

A bullet hole can be seen in the window of the car where a 44 year old woman was shot dead in Offenbach. Photo: DPA

According to German media reports, the 44-year-old was shot by someone in a passing car, while she was in another car. A wide-ranging search is underway to track down the perpetrator.

According to initial findings, the woman was on Frankfurter Straße (near the Luisenstraße junction) shortly before 7pm on Thursday evening when the incident happened.

Bild reported that police spokesman Henry Faltin said: “She was sitting in her car when the car drove by.”

Shots were fired at the car the woman was in. The woman died at the scene, while the car from which she was shot at raced away.

The perpetrator is thought to have been in a grey Audi. The Audi is said to be a rental car.

A large-scale search was launched after the alarm was raised on Thursday. Officers were able to find and secure the Audi in Klingsporstraße but the shooter is still at large.

The public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt has taken over the investigation. No more details have been released at this stage.

An autopsy is being conducted on Friday morning, after which Bild reports that the police and prosecutors are set to release more information.

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Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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