Authorities on Friday seized electronic devices from the home of a young Austrian involved in a shooting near Israel's consulate in Munich, Germany, though no weapons or Islamic State (ISIS) group propaganda were found, AFP reported.
The 18-year-old man was shot dead by German police on Thursday after he fired a vintage rifle at officers near the consulate.
Officials labeled the incident a "terrorist attack" and suggested it may have been intended to coincide with the anniversary of the 1972 Olympic Games massacre, where Israeli athletes were murdered by terrorists.
Following the attack, Austrian authorities searched the gunman’s residence in the Salzburg region, confiscating electronic data carriers, according to Austria’s top security official, Franz Ruf, who spoke at a press conference in Vienna on Friday.
During the search, "no weapons or IS propaganda" were discovered, Ruf confirmed.
Despite being prohibited from owning or carrying firearms, the man acquired a vintage carbine rifle, complete with a bayonet and around "fifty rounds of ammunition" for 400 euros just a day before the shooting, Ruf said, according to AFP.
He began shooting at approximately 9:00 a.m. local time near the Israeli consulate, triggering the deployment of around 500 police officers in Munich's city center.
At a separate briefing in Munich, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said investigators were analyzing the gunman’s electronic data but had not yet determined a clear motive.
However, the "working hypothesis" was that "the perpetrator acted out of Islamist or antisemitic motivation," Tilmann explained.
Austrian authorities revealed that the gunman, who had Bosnian roots, had previously been investigated for suspected links to terrorism.
In 2021, investigators discovered three videos the suspect had recorded, showing scenes from a computer game "with Islamist content," prosecutors said in a statement quoted by AFP.
Despite this, the investigation was dropped in 2023 due to insufficient evidence suggesting involvement in "radical" activities, according to prosecutors.
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks for several years and especially since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
The country's domestic intelligence chief warned that the risk of such assaults is "real and higher than it has been for a long time".
In late October, police in the western German city of Essen arrested a man who plotted to attack a pro-Israel demonstration.
In December, a 15-year-old boy was arrested in western Germany on suspicion of planning a possible attack on a Christmas market.
Weeks later German police arrested three people over an alleged attack plot targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year's Eve.
In late May, German authorities arrested two men suspected of plotting a knife attack on worshippers at a synagogue in the southwestern city of Heidelberg.
In June, an Iraqi man who is accused of standing by to carry out attacks for the Islamic State (ISIS) group after he arrived in Germany in 2022 was arrested in Esslingen, near Stuttgart.
Last month, three people were murdered and eight wounded in a stabbing attack in the city of Solingen which was claimed by ISIS.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)