Officer shot at as German police do raids tied to extremists

German investigators carried out raids related to a far-right movement on Wednesday, authorities said. A police officer was shot at during one of the searches and injured.

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Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that federal prosecutors ordered searches of 20 properties and that the move was related to the Reich Citizens movement, a loose grouping whose supporters deny the legitimacy of the present-day German Constitution and government. They claim instead that the German empire, or Reich, of 1871 still exists.

The incident in which a police offer was shot at “shows how dangerous the deployments are,” Buschmann said. He added that weapons authorities “are obliged to disarm ‘Reich Citizens.’”

The shot was fired during a search in the southwestern town of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the alleged perpetrator was caught quickly and wished the police special forces officer who was injured a fast recovery.

In December, German authorities said they had uncovered an alleged coup plot that resulted in the detention of more than 20 people linked to the Reich Citizens movement.

Federal prosecutors said the searches on Wednesday were connected with those raids in December and that there are now five more suspects — in various parts of Germany and neighboring Switzerland — who are accused of supporting a terror organization, German news agency dpa reported.

They added that the latest action in eight German states and in Switzerland also involved searches of the properties of 14 people who aren’t suspects.

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