German police probe ‘gun club’ members over far-right ties

BERLIN – Authorities in southern Germany are investigating members of a self-styled “gun club” on suspicion they may be planning attacks against migrants.

Bavaria’s state Interior Ministry says some 120 police, including tactical response units, raided 11 sites in the Munich area, Kaufbeuren and Bad Rodach early Thursday.

Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann says some members of the “Bavarian Firearm Sports Group Munich” are also part of the anti-migrant group PEGIDA Munich.

He says the gun club might be considered the “armed branch” of the far-right group, itself an offshoot of the Dresden-based Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West.

Herrmann says authorities “are concerned (the gun club) might try to pursue PEGIDA Munich’s anti-constitutional goals in a combative and aggressive way, for example by attacking minorities such as refugees and Muslims.”