German Man Arrested After Failed Attack on Synagogue

A German man suspected of killing two people near a synagogue in the country’s east and streaming the assault online was arrested on Wednesday after what authorities said appeared to be an anti-Semitic attack by a far-right extremist.

Witnesses said they saw the suspect, armed with two guns and wearing a helmet with a camera on top, try and fail to gain access to a synagogue in the city of Halle, where some 60 worshipers, including 10 U.S. nationals, had gathered to celebrate Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The suspected attacker then lobbed a projectile over the synagogue gate and started shooting, witnesses said.

Police said a woman was then shot dead on the street near the synagogue and a man was killed in a nearby kebab restaurant. A hospital spokesman said two people were wounded during the incident and treated at Halle’s university hospital.

A senior security official identified the suspect as Stephan Balliet, 27, a German citizen from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Halle is located, and said he wasn’t previously known to authorities.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said prosecutors had enough information to assume a far-right motivation behind the attack, even though it was too early to make a final determination.