Soldiers practice emergency situations in Erding, Bavaria. Then suddenly the police come – and shots are fired. The morning after, the extent of the fatal mix-up becomes clear.
October 23, 2025, 09:34Oct 23, 2025, 10:58
Julian Seiferth, Leon Pollok / t-online
During a major Bundeswehr exercise in Upper Bavaria Erding the police shot a soldier. A spokesman for the Bundeswehr’s operational command command told the dpa news agency on Tuesday evening, A misinterpretation on site led to a shot being fired between the practicing troops and the police called by the public. One soldier was slightly injured, treated in hospital and released.
As several media outlets, including Bayerischer Rundfunk, unanimously reported on Thursday morning, residents called the police. They reported a man in camouflage clothing armed with a rifle – the police raised a major alarm and sent numerous officers to the scene. What the police apparently didn’t know: The alleged gunman was a participant in the Bundeswehr exercise.
When the police arrived at the scene, the soldiers apparently thought the whole thing was part of the exercise. They opened fire on the police with practice ammunition. They, in turn, thought the shots were a real – life-threatening – attack and fired back with live ammunition. One soldier was slightly injured.
Bundeswehr exercise in Erding: Police consider exercise participants to be dangerous perpetrators
“As it subsequently turned out, the weapon carrier reported was a member of the Bundeswehr who was on site as part of an exercise,” the police said in a statement. A spokesman told the BR, The police were not aware “that these were not possible bad people, but rather practicing soldiers.”.
The police were generally aware of the Bundeswehr exercise. However, no exercise was announced for Wednesday at this point in Erding. The local police were not involved either.
Hundreds of emergency services practice defense cases in public
The large-scale exercise “Marshal Power” was intended to practice fighting behind a fictitious front line in the event of a defense – together with the police, fire brigade and rescue workers. The special: The approximately 500 military soldiers and the approximately 300 civilian emergency services do not practice in fenced-off military training areas, but in public.
According to the Bundeswehr, the emergency services should train to combat threats behind a fictitious front line, in the so-called “rear space” – for example against drones, sabotage or so-called “irregular forces”. This refers to armed fighters who are not part of a state army. The assumption is a scenario in which a NATO member state is attacked and the alliance has to be defended.
The soldiers should also practice working at crime scenes, directing traffic, detecting weapons caches, combating illegal arms trafficking and protecting critical infrastructure, for example at the decommissioned Isar 2 nuclear power plant. The soldiers should also practice defending against enemy drones and using their own drones.
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