German police responding to a report of a person armed with a long gun mistakenly shot a German soldier Oct. 22, 2025, during a military exercise in Bavaria. (Mya Webster/U.S. Army)

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — Police in southern Bavaria mistakenly shot a German soldier this week after their response to reports of a man carrying a weapon took them into a unilateral military exercise.

The shooting occurred Wednesday evening in Erding, a city 20 miles northeast of Munich, a Bavarian police statement the same day said.

Soldiers fired blanks at arriving officers, believing that the law enforcement agents were part of the exercise, causing police to return fire with real bullets, German news outlet Bild reported.

The unidentified soldier was grazed in the face. He was treated at an area hospital for minor injuries and released, the police statement said.

The shooting occurred during exercise Marshal Power, a simulated response to a foreign attack on a NATO country, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Thursday.

The exercise takes place in public areas of a dozen Bavarian towns north of Munich and involves approximately 500 military police from the German army and hundreds of local police and firefighters, according to Deutsche Welle.

Although there are no American military installations immediately near Erding, Bavaria is home to the U.S. Army’s training areas in Grafenwoehr and Vilseck, which often host multilateral exercises involving the two NATO allies.

On Wednesday, German police units, including a helicopter, responded to the area of Hohenlindener Street in Altenerding after receiving calls about a person armed with a long gun, the police statement said.

“Due to a misinterpretation on site, shots were fired,” the statement said. “There was no danger to the population at any time.”

The shooting is under investigation, the statement said.

Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this report.