ATTACKS
Most Jewish institutions in Germany's large cities have a near-permanent police guard due to occasional anti-Semitic attacks by both far-right activists and Islamist militants.
Josef Schuster, president of the council of Germany's Jewish community, criticised police for not being stationed outside the synagogue that was attacked as dozens prayed inside.
"If police had been stationed outside the synagogue, then this man could have been disarmed before he could attack the others," Schuster told Deutschlandfunk public radio.
In the event, the synagogue's solid locked gates and high walls provided ample protection against the attacker's seemingly improvised weapons.
Schuster said that while it was normal practice in his experience for all synagogues to have police guards while services were being conducted inside, this appeared not to be the case in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Halle is located.
However, the head of Germany's police union was sceptical about providing that level of protection.
"We'd have to guard every synagogue, every church, every mosque, every holy place in Germany around the clock, so I don't know if this was a mistake or if this really couldn't have been foreseen," Oliver Malchow told ARD public television.
Germany's federal prosecutors ramped up their legal case on Thursday, saying they would ask the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice to issue an arrest warrant against Stephan B., who was detained on Wednesday.
