A GERMAN prosecutor was shot and fatally injured in a Dachau district court yesterday by a businessman on trial for failing to pay his staff’s social security contributions.

Witnesses said that the defendant, 54, fired at the judge as he was sentencing the businessman, but missed. He then turned the gun on the prosecutor and shot him several times, Deutche Welle reports.

Two people managed to overpower the defendant.

The injured man, 31, was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency surgery, but died of his injuries.

No one else was injured in the incident. The defendant, who was being sentenced to one year on probation, is being charged with murder.

The Judges’ Association has called for tighter security after the man was able to carry an illegally-held pistol into the courthouse unnoticed. Officials in Dachau said in a press conference last night that “absolute safety” could not be guaranteed at the courthouse, the Süddeustche Zeitung reports.

In 2009, an Egyptian woman was stabbed to death in a Dresden courtroom by the man she was suing for insulting her over wearing an Islamic headscarf.