BERLIN — A joint military exercise in Bavaria went badly wrong this week after a German soldier was shot and wounded by police officers who mistook him for an armed threat, authorities said Thursday.
The incident occurred Wednesday evening in the town of Erding, northeast of Munich, when police received an emergency call reporting “a man with a long gun,” according to the Bavarian police. Officers responding to the call surrounded the area and, amid what officials later described as a “miscommunication,” opened fire.
“It was a communication failure,” a police spokesperson told the German press agency dpa, adding that the local police were unaware that a Bundeswehr training exercise was taking place in the area. The soldier, who was participating in a drill simulating combat during wartime, was hit and lightly injured. He was treated in hospital and released later that night, police said.
The shooting happened during “Marshal Power,” a large-scale defense exercise involving several hundred soldiers across 12 Bavarian districts. The Bundeswehr said the drill was meant to test coordination between soldiers, police, firefighters and rescue services in a mock national defense scenario.
According to Bild, the Bundeswehr’s military police may have fired training blanks at the responding officers, apparently mistaking them for part of the ongoing drill. The police, unaware of the exercise, allegedly returned fire with live ammunition, injuring the soldier.
The police confirmed that the local units had not been involved in planning the drill and were unaware that armed personnel would be active in the area that day. “We are now intensively examining where the communication broke down,” a police spokesperson said.
The Bavarian state criminal police and prosecutors in Landshut have opened an investigation into the incident. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who oversees the Bavarian police, has not yet commented publicly.
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