Report says extremism probe into Munich shooter was dropped last year

The Austria Press Agency says the man who attacked the Israeli consulate in Munich had come to the attention of authorities there last year but wasn’t considered high-risk.

Without naming sources, the paper claims that data and a game had been found on the cellphone of the man, an Austrian citizen with Bosnian roots, suggesting links to Islamic extremist ideology, but an investigation of him for possible membership in the Islamic State group was dropped.

Prosecutors in Salzburg decline to comment.

Bavaria state police and prosecutors say in a joint statement that the man, who was shot dead by police after opening fire, was likely planning a “terrorist attack” on the consulate.

No one else was hurt in the attack.

“It’s obvious that, if someone parks here within sight of the Israeli Consulate… then starts shooting, it most probably isn’t a coincidence,” Bavaria’s top security official, state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, tells reporters.