A man has confessed to an attack on a synagogue in Germany in which two people died, and admitted a far-right, anti-Semitic motive, during a hearing with an investigating judge.
Stephan Balliet, 27, spent several hours giving evidence before a federal court judge about the attack in the eastern city of Halle.
He was arrested on Wednesday after a 40-year-old woman was shot dead in front of Halle’s synagogue.
A man aged 20 was also fatally shot.
He was attacked inside a kebab shop after the gunman tried unsuccessfully to storm the synagogue, firing on the door several times.
Inside the synagogue, 51 people were marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. Investigators believe his intention was to carry out a massacre and have revealed that 4kg (9lb) of explosives were found in his car.
Balliet faces a double murder charge as well as seven counts of attempted murder. Before he was captured, he also wounded a man and a woman. He is now being held in pre-trial detention.
The gunman streamed his attack online for 35 minutes and published a far-right manifesto. Prosecutors say it it is too early to say if he had accomplices and whether he was part of any far-right group.
Christina Feist was inside the synagogue as the gunman tried – and failed – to shoot his way into the building.
“We were actually just in the middle of Shacharit, which is the morning service, reading Torah, when I heard and saw explosions and two clouds of smoke right outside the window,” she said. “For a couple of seconds everyone was silent, and then all of a sudden everything went super-fast.
The cantor who was leading prayer immediately understood what was going on.
“He said: ‘Everyone out of here – go to the next room, go upstairs, be on the floor, go down and go away from the windows.'”
The horror and confusion which engulfed Halle on Wednesday has been replaced by bewilderment and painful questions.
What many in Halle’s Jewish community – and others besides – want to know is why there was no police guard to protect them.
