At least six people have died this Thursday in a shooting in a center of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in hamburg where an act was being held among the members of that community. The attack, which according to the newspaper ‘Bild’ has also left at least eight injured, occurred around nine o’clock at night in the Altersdorf district, in the north of the German Hanseatic city, somewhat away from the center of Hamburg. The attacker is dead, a police spokesman has assured the NTV television channel.
“A major police intervention is taking place right now in Alsterdorf”, a neighborhood in the north of the city, the Hamburg police have confirmed on Twitter.
The police received the first notice around 9:15 p.m., according to NTV. Immediately after, proceeded to cordon off the areawhile the population has been alerted through Twitter that the situation was “extreme danger“. At the same time, citizens have been asked to try to limit their phone calls except to emergency situations to avoid the collapse of the lines.
Doubts about the aggressor
Initially it was reported that the assailant had fled. However, a police spokesman later explained to NTV that the attacker would be among the dead.
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The mayor of Hamburg has described what happened in his city as “horrifying” and has declared that “the security forces are working intensely (…) to clarify what happened.”
According to local media, 17 of those attending the act at the scene of the shooting were unharmed.