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A POLICE officer suffered a gunshot wound today as German authorities carried out raids related to a far-right movement.
The shot was fired during a search in the south-western town of Reutlingen.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the alleged perpetrator was now in detention.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that federal prosecutors had ordered searches of 20 properties in connection with the Reich Citizens movement, a loose grouping whose supporters deny the legitimacy of the present-day German constitution and government.
The far-right activists claim instead that the German empire, or Reich, founded in 1871 and dissolved in 1918, still exists.
The shooting of the police officer “shows how dangerous the deployments are,” Mr Buschmann said.
He added that weapons authorities “are obliged to disarm ‘Reich Citizens’.”
In December, German authorities said they had uncovered a plot to stage a coup against the state that resulted in the detention of more than 20 people linked to the Reich Citizens movement.
Federal prosecutors said that the searches were connected with the December raids and that there were now five more suspects in various parts of Germany and Switzerland who are accused of supporting a terrorist organisation.
