A man brandishing a knife inside Berlin Cathedral has been shot and wounded by police. A second police officer was wounded in the crossfire. The area remains cordoned off.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/O. Messinger
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'Rampaging' man shot by police: Rebecca Ritters from Berlin
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A German police officer shot and wounded a knife-wielding man inside Berlin Cathedral on Sunday after staff called the emergency services.
Footage posted online showed armed police officers cordoning off the area around the cathedral — one of Berlin's most popular tourist attractions — with two ambulances parked at the entrance. Witnesses said that armed officers were patrolling the area.
Police later said they had shot at a man "rampaging" in the church, injuring him in the leg. They described the suspect as a "hooligan," who was "acting aggressively."
Witnesses told local media that they observed the man "acting strangely."
No apparent terrorism links
Berlin police spokesman Winfrid Wenzel said there was no reason to suspect the knife-wielding man's actions were linked to terrorism.
"Based on what we know so far, we have no information that the suspect in any way had a terrorist or Islamist motive," Wenzel said.
Police went on to disclose that the suspect was a 53-year-old Austrian man. He was taken to a local hospital to undergo surgery after being shot by police in the leg.
Berlin Cathedral is set to remain cordoned off until MondayImage: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/O. Messinger
Officer injured in the crossfire
Two police officers responding to the call repeatedly asked the suspect to put down the knife but no avail. The officers then tried to use a chemical spray to disarm the man, but that also proved ineffective, leading one of the officers to open fire and wound the suspect.
The second officer was inadvertently wounded by the ricocheting bullet from his colleague. He was taken to hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries before being released.
Germany's landmarks a target for extremists
The cathedral, or Dom, lies in central Berlin on the city's famous Museum Island, an area typically crowded with tourists and visitors. About 100 people were in the Dom at the time of the incident and were safely escorted outside by staff.
Germany, like several other European nations, remains a top target for Islamist militant groups, particularly because of its involvement in the coalition fighting against the so-called "Islamic State" jihadi group in Syria and Iraq, as well as its deployment of Bundeswehr troops in Afghanistan since 2001.
The country's worst terror incident to date saw Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri ram a truck into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12 and wounding around 50 others.
10 offbeat museums in Berlin
In addition to the renowned Museum Island, Germany's capital has about 200 other museum attractions, packed with treasures from the whimsical to the enlightening.
Image: picture-alliance/W. Steinberg
Sugar Museum
The permanent exhibition "It's All Sugar!" traces the development of the white gold as a coveted trade good with a wide variety of uses – among them as material for a model of one of Berlin's landmarks. The exhibits from the original Sugar Museum opened in 1904 have been moved to the Museum of Technology in Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Lipstick Museum
A deluxe gold-plated, diamond-and-black-sapphire-encrusted lipstick tube in art deco style from 1925 is just one of the highlights of René Koch's sumptuous collection. By prior arrangement, the Berlin make-up artist shows guests around his private museum in the Wilmersdorf district, and on request, he'll even give individual make-up tips.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/E. Wabitsch
Gay Museum
A comic by artist Ross Johnston has Superman and Robin kissing. For men who love men, women who love women and, for that matter, everyone else, the Gay Museum in Berlin's Tiergarten district is an eye-opener of a special kind. It offers public tours free of charge.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K.-D. Gabbert
Gründerzeit Museum
This is what the parlor of a well-to-do German family looked like between 1870 and 1900. Fourteen living rooms fully furnished in Gründerzeit style may be admired in a manor house in Berlin's Mahlsdorf district. An extra-special exhibit is the interior of the Mulackritze, one of Berlin's most famous pubs in the “Golden Twenties”.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Stache
Animal Anatomical Theatre
At one time, medical students dissected animal cadavers here. Now, the theatre is part of Berlin's oldest and most significant academic buildings. The neo-classical hall was designed by architect Carl Gotthard Langhans in the 18th century, contemporaneously with the Brandenburg Gate. It's accessible to the public as part of the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité University Hospital.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Hannibal
Computer Games Museum
The Computer Games Museum was the first of its kind in the world when it opened in Berlin's Friedrichshain district in 2011. It's just as fascinating to the analogue as the digital generation. It guides visitors easily through the high-speed development of gaming from the legendary Pong to Gameboy and to the next level of the very latest 3D games.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pilick
Berlin Underworlds Museum
A city model embodies the megalomania of Adolf Hitler's plans for reshaping Berlin. The vast dome in the middle was to be the Hall of the People, with seating for over 150,000 spectators. The exhibition “Myth of Germania – Vision and Crime” is open to the public in the museum of the Berliner Unterwelten Society at the Gesundbrunnen city rail station.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Mehlis
German-Russian Museum
Germany's unconditional surrender was ratified for the Red Army On May 8th/9th in a former officers' mess hall in the Berlin district of Karlshorst, ending the Second World War in Europe. During the days of East Germany, this was a museum commemorating that event. Since German reunification, the museum, under its new name, has focused on German-Russian relations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
Bröhan-Museum
The art patron Karl H. Bröhan donated his private collection of 16,000 individual works to the city of Berlin. This special museum opposite Charlottenburg Palace displays objects from the art nouveau, art deco and Berlin Secession schools. The coffee and tea service by Josef Hoffmann created something of a furor as an expression of avant-garde design in 1910.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Stache
Gaslight open-air museum
Berlin still has more than its share of gently shimmering gaslights. They line Sophie-Charlotten-Strasse, the side streets off Kurfürstendamm and the Chamissoplatz, among others. The Gaslight Culture Society devotes its efforts to preserving the historical streetlights and offers night-time tours. A collection of gaslights from around Europe has been installed at one end of Tiergarten Park.
