German police shoot man with axe and ‘Molotov cocktail’ ahead of Euro 2024 game

Police cordon off an area near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg Picture: Bodo Marks/AP

Hamburg police have shot a man they say was armed with an “axe-like object” and a “Molotov cocktail” just hours before the city staged its first game of Euro 2024.

The German city’s police force said officers were threatened by the individual and, after he refused to drop the incendiary device, he was shot in his leg.