An Edmonton woman is in shock after she said she had to run away from gunfire in Munich.
Anna Macht, 24, arrived in Munich on Friday with her boyfriend.
Macht said they wanted to go to downtown Munich to get a beer on their first day in the city. On the cab ride to the restaurant, she said the driver told them there had been a shooting at the Olympia shopping centre and several people had been killed.
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Watch below: Video posted to social media purports to show the moment an unidentified man opens fire outside a McDonald’s at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping centre. At least six people are reported to have been killed.
“I said to my boyfriend that, you know, with this happening I didn’t know how safe I felt going to a very populated tourist place in the city. But we figured it was far enough away that we would probably be safe,” she said.
The pair arrived at Hofbrauhaus, which is about 10 kilometres from the Olympia shopping centre, and sat at the very back of the restaurant. They had only been there for two minutes when Macht said she noticed something was wrong.
“Everyone from the front of the restaurant started running towards us screaming. We didn’t know why. I grabbed my boyfriend and the only thing I could think to do was to hide under the table,” she said.
She said, roughly 20 seconds later, she heard gunfire. Police in Munich said they are investigating reports of gunfire in other areas of the city but there has been no confirmation.
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There are multiple unconfirmed reports of “more violence and possible gunfire in the City Center,” the force said on social media. “Please avoid public areas.” There have also been reports of gunfire at the Marienplatz train station, which is around eight kilometres from the shopping mall.
“People started screaming. Everyone in the restaurant was trying to break the windows and kick the windows out so we could climb out through the windows because the only exit was at the very back,” she said.
Macht and her boyfriend ultimately escaped through a back door but stumbled upon a frantic scene on the streets.
“It was complete chaos. Everyone was screaming, running by the time we got out of the restaurant. The streets were just full of people running away. We didn’t know who was there, if they had a gun, we all just knew we needed to run,” she said.
Macht said she thought she was going to die.
“Everything you’ve seen on TV lately, you never think you’re going to be in that situation. The only thing that goes through your mind – you’re just going to be one of those names that they’re reading off the TV the next day,” she said.
“The streets were just packed with police cars and ambulances. It was scary.”
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The Edmonton woman said she and her boyfriend ended up running back to their hotel five kilometres away from downtown.
Hours later, however, she said she still does not feel safe.
“We’re still honestly in shock. I’m still shaking.”
Macht said she planned to leave Munich on Saturday on a flight to Greece but, considering the circumstances in the city, she isn’t sure whether she will still be able to do that.
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