German police shot and injured a man after he threatened passers-by and officers with a pickaxe and a Molotov cocktail ahead of a Euro 2024 match in Hamburg on Sunday, officials said.

"At around midday on Sunday (1000 GMT), a man threatened several passers-by and police officers with a pickaxe and a Molotov cocktail," police said in a statement.

Police then shot and injured the attacker, who "may have been having a psychiatric crisis," the statement added.

Hamburg was thronging with football fans at the time ahead of the Euro 2024 match between Poland and the Netherlands.

However, police said there was no indication of a link to the Euro 2024 clash.

The man came out of a snack bar holding the weapons and approached passers-by and police at the scene "in a threatening manner," the police said.

When he did not comply with a request to put them down, police shot at him.

A police spokesman said he was shot in the leg.

He was treated by first-aiders at the scene and then taken to hospital.

The suspect has been identified as a 39-year-old German man, the police said, adding that his motive was not known.

Police said earlier on X, formerly Twitter, that the incident had triggered a "major operation" in the city's St Pauli district.

It happened near the Reeperbahn station, more than a kilometre away from the city's official football fan zone. (AFP)