All of the eight Israeli athletes held hostage by Arab guerrillas at the Olympic village throughout the day yesterday were reported early this morning to have been killed during an exchange of fire between their captors and the German police at a military airport near Munich.
The fate of the guerrillas ╤ thought to be five in number ╤ was not immediately known for certain, but it was reported that three had been killed, one had committed suicide with a grenade, and a fifth had escaped.
Police were searching for the fugitive in villages near the Furstenfeld airport and motorists were warned not to pick up hitch-hikers on roads in the area.
The climax of the operation to release the Israeli captives began late last night when the German authorities provided an orange bus to take both guerrillas and their hostages from the Olympic village to helicopters standing by to take them to the airport. The guerrillas refused to use the bus and an Army vehicle was brought instead. The group travelled in two helicopters and Government negotiators travelled in a third.
Accounts of what happened were confused. One report stated that after the two helicopters had arrived two guerrillas went to inspect a Boeing airliner of Lufthansa waiting on the tarmac. The airfield, which had been brilliantly lit when the helicopters arrived, was suddenly thrown into darkness and shooting broke out. It was unclear whether the first shots came from the German police or from the guerrillas.
Until early yesterday afternoon the whole sequence of events had been seen on German television, but then live transmissions were stopped. The police had pointed out that the guerrillas could also watch television and from it learn what moves the authorities were contemplating.
The tension increased in the late afternoon when the Minister of the Interior, Herr Genscher, entered the village and walked up to the Israeli quarters. He made a personal appeal to the Arabs to give themselves up and returned looking downcast, having got no assurances that the guerrillas would drop their demands.
In a television broadcast last night Herr Brandt said that the guerrillas had been offered money and a safe passage if they would set the hostages free. Leading German politicians had offered to exchange themselves with the hostages. All these offers had been turned down.
He described the Arab attack as a severe blow to the Olympic ideal, and to West Germany, as host to the Games. He called for international action to stop the criminal acts of terrorists.
The guerrillas had said that before they set free the hostages, all of whom are men, the Israelis must release 200 Arabs who are in prison in Israel. But even if the Israeli Government accepted this the guerrillas insisted on first being allowed free passage from Munich Airport ╤ with their hostages. They demanded to be allowed to travel in three groups and they stipulated that each plane must have landed safely at its destination before the next left.
If these demands were not met, the guerrillas ╤ who are members of the Black September movement ╤ said that one hostage would be killed every two hours.
The story began at about 4.30 yesterday morning and the first news of it was broken several hours later. One report said that the guerrillas were wearing track suits and got into the village over the wire perimeter fence. A guard said that he saw them walking in the village, but assumed they were coming home from a late training session.
They went straight to the Israeli quarters, but they did not enter without difficulty.
One of the men who was killed, Mr Moshe Weinberger, tried to stop the men entering the apartments. His action enabled several members of the team to escape. But Mr Weinberger was shot through the door as the Arabs rushed in.
The Arabs also killed a second member of the team, the weightlifter Josef Romano.
The hostages, and the Uruguayan athletes in the neighbouring flat, were ordered not to show themselves at the windows. In the block opposite, which houses the East German team, a man heard a commotion and saw the guerrillas go into the flats. It was then the alarm was given.
The compound was cordoned off by a force of several thousand policemen, who were later joined by troops. The athletes who were competing in events were still allowed in and out of the village and some reporters who had put on track suits also succeeded in passing the guards.
Herr Brandt was in Bonn when the news of the guerrilla action was released and a few hours later the West German Cabinet met in emergency session. The Minister of the Interior, Herr Genscher, was deputed to take charge of the negotiations with the guerrillas.
It is believed that Bonn asked the Israelis whether it would be possible to free at least some of the Arab prisoners in Israel, although West German sources said they fully understood why the Israelis were refusing to do this.
Around midday there were demonstrations by young Israeli spectators demanding the abandonment of the Games, and a flood of telegrams reached the International Olympic Committee making the same demand. But for several hours boxing, fencing, and equestrian events continued in spite of the feeling that here was a case where the show simply could not go on.
After the official announcement that the Games had been suspended came a statement that a memorial service for the victims of the guerrilla attack would be held in the main stadium today. It was also said that if the story ended without further bloodshed the Games would be resumed as soon as the memorial service was over.
Athletes from Arab countries were no less horrified than anybody else by the guerrilla raid. Many of them did not venture from their apartments and if they did they went about in groups. The Egyptian team announced that it had decided to withdraw from the Games.
