Police in Germany said officers opened fire on an ax-wielding suspect who put fans in jeopardy near a Euro 2024 fan parade in the city of Hamburg Sunday. 

Hamburg Police said an unidentified person threatened officers “with a pickaxe and an incendiary device” in the St. Pauli district. 

The incident reportedly happened on the sidelines of a Euro 2024 soccer fan parade, which was unfolding hours before Poland and the Netherlands were scheduled to play in the city’s stadium, Volksparkstadion.

Officers deployed their guns, and the attacker was injured and received medical attention, police said on X. 

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The department afterward announced a “major police operation” underway, adding the event at Heiligengeistfeld “is subject to various security checks and is well protected.” 

“We are currently assuming that there was a lone perpetrator,” police added. 

The incident happened around the same time as the Dutch fan parade. Nearly 40,000 soccer fans were marching through the entertainment district, according to German state broadcaster DW. 

The suspect reportedly walked out of a bar and began waving an ax in a “threatening manner.” Officers opened fire after the man refused to lay down the ax, hitting him in the leg, German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported, citing Hamburg Police. German media published images of a person lying in the street surrounded by paramedics and police officers.

A view of the Volkspark Stadium ahead of the European Soccer Championships 2024 in Hamburg, Germany, May 14, 2024.  (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP, File)

“According to current knowledge, there is no football connection,” a police spokesman told the outlet. The motive was not immediately announced. 

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German authorities have put police on high alert during the tournament, which began Friday and runs through July 14, for fear of possible fan violence and terrorist attacks.

Police officers walk on a sidewalk next to an apartment building in Wolmirstedt, Germany, Saturday, June 15, 2024. German police say they shot to death an Afghan man after he fatally attacked a compatriot and later wounded three people watching the televised Euro 2024 soccer tournament.  (Thomas Schulz/dpa via AP)

On Friday, police shot to death a 27-year-old Afghan national after he fatally attacked a 23-year-old compatriot with a “knife-like object” and later wounded three people watching the televised game between Germany and Scotland in Wolmirstedt, a small town about 80 miles west of Berlin. 

Police said Sunday the motive for that attack was still unclear. 

The Interior Ministry in Saxony-Anhalt state, which includes Wolmirstedt, said police had increased their presence across the state.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More than 4,000 people have marched through Brussels in protest against the political right and racism.

Organised by the Anti-fascist Coordination of Belgium (CAB) the march brought together around 20 social movements and organisations.

It’s the second major march in the Belgian capital denouncing the far-right since the EU elections on June 9th which saw right and far-right parties winning big.

“This march is important today to show a message of hope in the face of the messages of despair that the far right wants to bring us,” said CAB member Sixtine Van Outryve.

“It’s important to show that we’re in solidarity with everyone, whatever their nationality, whatever they earn, whatever they do. We stand together and we want a society that doesn’t divide us. A society that doesn’t exclude, a society that isn’t racist or sexist.”

“Many of us were shocked by the election results, showing far-right breakthroughs at the European level,” Van Outryve said, expressing concern about what she called an “alarming” trend towards the normalisation of far-right discourse.

Right and far-right parties scored big in the EU elections with the most dramatic result coming in France. Marine le Pen’s National Rally took first place in the polls with more than 31% of the vote, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap elections.

In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy bagged the most votes (28.7%) while in Germany, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) surged to second place, knocking Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats into third.

There were also victories for right-leaning and populist parties in Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Demonstrators in Brussels were keen to show that the rise of the far-right wasn’t “inevitable” and that it was important to confront it by building social and democratic alternatives.

“We’re going to show them that young people aren’t entirely seduced by far right and that the majority of us continue to fight against their ideas,” said a 17-year-old protester called Henri.