[Hala Gorani, Cnn Host:] Tonight, Israeli police are hunting a killer after a gunman unleashed a hail of bullets at a pub in Tel Aviv. Also this hour, where there is smoke, a Dubai hotel is still smolders this hour, a day after fire ravaged a skyscraper. And the end of an era and the start of much bigger families. China welcomes the arrival of the two-child policy. Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We are live at CNN London on this first day of 2016. Welcome, everybody. This is THE WORLD RIGHT NOW.
[Gorani:] A manhunt is underway this hour for a gunman who opened fire outside a pub in Tel Aviv. At least two people are confirmed dead. Seven more are wounded in the attack, four of them seriously. Now we have some security camera footage that gives us a view inside from inside the pub onto the terrace. You can see people ducking for cover as the attacker fires off rounds. And here's more surveillance video, this time from a grocery store nearby. We have to tell you, CNN does not know how these videos were obtained. But you see the suspect there at one point. He was, in fact, putting vegetables in a backpack, we understand, according to sources, and then walked out of that grocery store and we believe at that point started shooting. There you see it, shooting at the terrorists of that pub. Police are swarming the neighborhood, searching for that shooter and any clues to whether this is terror-related or a criminal act. All right. Joining me now on the phone from Tel Aviv is Meghan Robertson. She's a senior producer with the "Huffington Post" and was in the area when this attack took place. What did you see and what did you hear, Meghan? I'm sorry. Micky Rosenfeld, I understand, the police chief can join me now. Mr. Rosenfeld, can you hear me?
[Micky Rosenfeld, Police Chief:] Yes, I can here you. Good evening.
[Gorani:] Ar. Thanks for being with us, Micky Rosenfeld. Let me first ask you about what we know about the suspect. We understand the manhunt is still underway, correct? The person has not been apprehended?
[Rosenfeld:] We are continuing to search almost half an hour in the Tel Aviv area, in the city Tel Aviv and the nearby
[Gorani:] All right. I think we've lost Micky Rosenfeld, who's a spokesperson for the police department there in Tel Aviv. We're having a few technical problems, as you've certainly noticed, but Ian Lee, I understand, can join me now live. Ian, if you can hear me.
[Ian Lee, Cnn Correspondent:] Yes, Hala. We as were can pick up from what Micky was just saying, is that the police are going really house by house, street by street, looking for the suspect, as one spokesman said, they flooded Tel Aviv with security personnel looking for this gunman. We've seen the security footage in the moments leading up to it, where he is in the supermarket, appears to be shopping. Then when he's leaving, he places his bag on the shopping carts, pulls out that gun and sprays the neighboring pub and sidewalk, killing at least two people. But the important thing is, looking at that video, you can see he leaves behind that bag. We're also hearing that he left behind a clip to the gun. These will be crucial pieces of evidence for the police going forward, trying to determine who this is and what were the motivations behind this. But the police still are staying they don't know if this was a criminal incident or a terrorist attack. But tonight a lot of heavy security in Tel Aviv. But despite that, they are telling residents to go about their daily lives, just to be a little bit more on alert Hala.
[Gorani:] But there is still a manhunt underway, correct? Are there concerns that this individual might attack again?
[Lee:] That definitely is a concern. And right now it is Shabbat; people are going to the synagogue to pray, coming back from there. There is increased security around those areas just as a precaution. They're not saying what it is either way, criminal or a terrorist attack, but definitely you do have a gunman on the loose. We do not know if he has had any help. The police haven't said anything about anybody helping him. So it is still a very dangerous situation with this man on the street. But the police, as we have been seeing all day, are really just flooding the area, looking for this gunman.
[Gorani:] All right. We're still hoping to get Micky Rosenfeld back, who's a spokesperson for the police department. Sadly, we lost him there but we're going to try to redial him, I understand. Let me ask you a little bit about some reports on Israeli television, that relatives of this suspect contacted television and contacted journalists in Israel, saying I recognize this individual. He's a troubled individual. He has a violent past and he has a record. What can you tell us about that?
[Lee:] That's right. We've been hearing it from multiple Israeli TV channels and newspapers, saying that this is a man from the northern part of Israel. These newspapers, these TV reports are saying that it is an Arab Israeli that carried it out. But we heard from the minister of public security, who has come out and said that they don't have any information about who it is, they also asked the media not to speculate about who carried out this attack and to let them come out with this information. They promised to be transparent with it. But right now they're asking the media, especially local media, where we've been watching it, and there have been quite a few theories. They're asking them just to hold back a bit on who it is and what the motivations are.
[Gorani:] All right. But we are hearing police, though, of course, they're saying the investigation is ongoing. In fact, the manhunt is ongoing. They don't even have the suspect in custody, is my understanding. The question being, is this a terrorist attack? Is this a criminal attack? In fact, Ian Lee, if you could stand by, we can go back to Micky Rosenfeld, who's a spokesperson there for the police. He's joining us live now on the line. Micky Rosenfeld, let me ask you first about this manhunt. How close are you, do you believe, to apprehending a suspect?
[Rosenfeld:] At this moment in time, the different police units that are in and around the Tel Aviv area are focusing on trying to find the individual who carried out the incident today. Obviously camp terrorist units are searching literally door to door, house to house search in order to see exactly which areas he could be in. This afternoon's attack, unfortunately, two Israelis have been killed. And therefore it's our main priority to get hold of the suspect and continue to carry out an intensive investigation, how he made his way inside the Tel Aviv area, what his motives were and how he got into the area.
[Gorani:] Does he still have his weapon or did he live it on the site of the attack?
[Rosenfeld:] That's all part of the ongoing investigation. What we can confirm is that shots were fired from an automatic weapon. We're also looking at the CCTV footage from a number of different cameras, a number of different angles in order to try and get more information of the suspect, the profile, what he looks like and what his exact profile is. So that's something that we're focused upon. At the same time, you have to remember that, here in Israel, the Sabbath came in. And a lot of people are in synagogues this evening in the Tel Aviv area. So we heightened security to make sure that there wouldn't be any further incidents around the synagogues. And at this moment in time, our units are continuing searching the different neighborhoods in Tel Aviv.
[Gorani:] And I'm asking this question because of course it's there's a difference between a suspect on the loose and a suspect on the loose with an automatic rifle, in this case. You're not able to tell us if he's still armed?
[Rosenfeld:] As far as we can tell, we're not taking any chances whatsoever. As far as we know, the man is still armed. As far as we know, he's hiding somewhere in the Tel Aviv area. We've also set up roadblocks around the city of Tel Aviv
[Gorani:] Are you classifying this as a terrorist attack or a criminal act?
[Rosenfeld:] I'll try the afternoon assessments were made and police units were searching. It's not 100 percent clear but there's a strong possibility that we're talking about a terrorist attack, although we haven't ruled out the criminal-related perspective. But as time goes by, as we're looking into the information and the different perspectives, there's a stronger possibility that it could be a terrorist attack.
[Gorani:] Let me ask you about these reports on Israeli TV and also in some Israeli newspapers, that the father of the suspect contacted police, saying, "This is my son. He stole my gun. I recognize him." Can you confirm that?
[Rosenfeld:] Obviously I'm not going to go into the details of what's going on in the investigation. Our forensics today were at the scene to find out what type of ammunition was used. Those details we did confirm in order to look and see what type of weapon which was used. All the other details are under a gag order. We're continuing to work on the ground level to make sure that Tel Aviv stays safe this evening.
[Gorani:] And lastly, can you confirm that there's an intensive police operation in Northern Israel and Wadi Ara, where some reports suggest the suspects is from? Can you confirm that?
[Rosenfeld:] I don't have any further details on that. We're focusing at this moment in time only on Tel Aviv in order to prevent any further incidents from taking place. We need to find that suspect, get a hold of him and question him and to his clear motives and make sure that things get back to regular and quietly over the Sabbath in Tel Aviv.
[Gorani:] Micky Rosenfeld, the spokesperson there for the police department, he's joining us live on CNN with more on this attack that has left two people dead at a pub in Tel Aviv and seven people injured, four of them seriously. Thanks very much for joining us with the latest on that as the manhunt, by the way, is still unfolding. This suspect is not in custody. Mickey Rosenfeld saying they're there, assuming he is armed and they are leaning toward calling this a terrorist attack. We'll get you more on this story when it becomes available. But let's turn our attention now to Germany, where tensions are easing up in Munich today. That's because officials say the risk of an imminent terrorist attack hitting the city seems to have faded. But yesterday was very a different story. Armed police swooped in and shut down busy train stations just minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve all because of intelligence relating to a, quote, "concrete threat of a massive ISIS-linked attack." Fred Pleitgen joins me now here in our London studio with more. Yesterday when we saw those tweets from officials in Germany, it sounded like something was imminent.
[Frederik Pleitgen, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] It was a lot more urgent
[Gorani:] So was this bad intelligence or did the attack that was planned not take place?
[Pleitgen:] That's the big question right now and certainly something that German authorities are not able to answer at this point in time. The interior minister of Bavaria said, you know, was this a false alarm? Did you overreact? He said, no, I don't think that we did. But he said that with the timing the way it was, with the number of people that were on the streets, with, obviously, the timeframe being one where they had the info that something was going to take place at midnight, they felt that they've done the right thing. At this point they're simply not clear or they're not sure whether or not they might have thwarted an attack or whether or not this might have been a phantom.
[Gorani:] All right. Let's talk about something that happened in France today in Valence. Apparently there was some sort of an attack on soldiers guarding a mosque.
[Pleitgen:] A mosque, yes. This is part of a larger French operation that obviously started after the Paris attacks, where they started guarding religious sites with security officers, mosques, synagogues, churches and other sites as well. And apparently in one of these places in the town of Valence in the Alps there was a man who drove his car into a group of soldiers on a parking lot of a mosque there and then reversed and tried to run over the soldiers again. And that's when they opened fire on this man and anywhere between one and four soldiers were injured in all of this, none of them severely
[Gorani:] But the suspect is -?
[Pleitgen:] has been shot in the arm and in the leg.
[Gorani:] and he's in the hospital.
[Pleitgen:] He's in the hospital. They haven't been able to question him yet. So it's unclear whether or not this is part of a wider plot or what exactly this man's motives were.
[Gorani:] All right, Fred Pleitgen, thanks very much for that report. In entertainment news, singer Natalie Cole is dead at the age of 65. The daughter of Nat King Cole, she's a Grammy award or was a Grammy award-winning singer. She rose to fame in the 70s as also a songwriter. She suffered ongoing health issues. She had a kidney transplant in fact six years ago. She died on Thursday evening near