An armed man who was shot dead by German police near the Nazi Documentation Centre and the Israeli consulate in Munich on Thursday has been identified as an 18-year-old Austrian national.

The man fired at police stationed outside the documentation centre before engaging in a gunfight with five officers. He was critically injured in the exchange and later died. There were no other injuries reported.

The man, of Bosnian descent, had previously been reported to the Salzburg public prosecutor’s office for alleged involvement in a terrorist organisation. While he was not classified as a high-risk threat, his phone was found to contain significant amounts of Islamic State (IS or ISIS) propaganda. It also held a video game that had circulated among ISIS sympathisers via social media channels and reportedly depicted violence associated with the terror group.

The phone’s contents were discovered after the youth had been involved in violent incidents at his school, which led to the seizure and examination of the device.

His weapon appeared to be an antique rifle with a bayonet. “He aimed directly at the police officers, who returned fire,” stated Bavaria’s Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann.

The nearby Israeli consulate was closed at the time of the incident due to a commemoration event marking the attack on the Israeli Olympic team in Munich on September 5, 1972, by Palestinian militants.

The motives behind the shooter’s actions remain unclear, though Herrmann did not rule out the possibility that he intended to target the consulate.

Bavaria’s Minister-President, Markus Söder, described the incident as serious and suggested a potential link to the 1972 attack, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the violence.