French President Francois Hollande extended the support and solidarity of his country to Germany following a shooting spree at a restaurant and shopping centre in Munich, the Elysee Palace said Saturday, dpa reported. In a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Hollande said in a statement that the two leaders "agreed on the necessity of cooperating even more closely, faced with those [who] would seek to divide and create a climate of terror." Paris said its iconic Eiffel Tower was to be lit up in the colours of the German flag - black, red, gold - on Saturday night in a tribute to the victims in Munich. France has seen multiple terrorist attacks on its soil in the past 19 months, including on July 14 during national Bastille Day celebrations in the southern city of Nice. There, a 31-year-old man ploughed through a crowd in a delivery truck, killing 84 people and injuring 330. Paris was the target of two other largescale attacks, including one in November that saw 130 people killed at a national stadium, concert hall and bars and cafes throughout a string of popular neighbourhoods. German police said the attack in Munich was not connected to global Islamist terrorism, but could have been inspired by a massacre in Norway five years by Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people.
