Police shot and injured a man who threatened them with an axe and a Molotov cocktail ahead of a Euro 2024 match in Hamburg on Sunday, German authorities said.

The incident triggered a "major operation" in the city's St Pauli district, police said on X, formerly Twitter.

A 39-year-old German man has been identified as a suspect, police sources told AFP.

There was no indication of a link to the Euro 2024 clash between Poland and the Netherlands that took place later on Sunday, a police spokesman said.

The attacker "came out of a pub with a pickaxe and a Molotov cocktail and threatened the police", the spokesman said, adding that the suspect was shot in the leg.

The police also said on X that the suspect was injured and receiving medical treatment.

The incident took place near the Reeperbahn station, more than a kilometre away from the city's official fan zone.

However, most of Hamburg was thronging with football fans ahead of the match, in which the Netherlands beat Poland 2-1. 

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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