Police say the man was hit by several gunshots before collapsing to the ground (Picture: AP)
Police have shot down a man armed with an axe nearby crowds of football fans at Euro 2024.
Early reports indicate authorities have closed down the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
The area is understood not to be far from thousands of Dutch fans who have gathered in the German city for the Euro 2024 games.
Four loud bangs were heard before hundreds of riot police moved in.
Rory Smith, chief football correspondent for the New York Times, posted on X: ‘To confirm: police have shot a man threatening fans with an axe a few hundred yards away from the fan zone in Hamburg.
‘Attacker is “severely injured” and has just been driven away in an ambulance.’
It’s further being reported that the suspect was specifically armed with a ‘pickaxe’ and an ‘incendiary device’.
The individual is understood to have been shot and and injured by authorities after also threatening officers in the area.
Around 40,000 Dutch fans are currently present in the neighbourhood, attending a march before the European Championship match between Poland and the Netherlands, according to Bild.
The attack took place at roughly 12.30pm local time.
Police are reported to have first used pepper spray against the man before eventually resorting to firearms.
Authorities have said in a statement that one officer fired a warning shot before the others opened fire at the individual.
The German newspaper has since reported the ‘incendiary device’ in the attacker’s possession may have been a Molotov cocktail concealed in his backpack.
The man is currently receiving medical treatment following the shooting.
It follows after another attack yesterday that left one person dead and three people injured at a football party in Magdeburg, Germany.
An unnamed man stabbed someone at a housing estate in the city before breaking into a private Euros viewing party nearby.
Experts have recently said how the championship has presented an exceptionally ‘complex security challenge’ as authorities seek to monitor and contain a wide variety of different threats.
Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler has identified terrorism, hooliganism and far-right violence as some of the most pressing concerns at present.
Amid the ongoing operation, German police have recently suggested England fans take to smoking cannabis instead of drinking pints, in an apparent attempt to prevent tempers from flaring.
It comes as a football policing expert, Dr Mike Hope, suggested England fans are themselves targets for hooligans from other nations.
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