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Police reported earlier in the evening that shots were fired at a church in the northern Alsterdorf district. According to German media, it is a center for Jehovah’s Witnesses that is located in a three-storey building. According to police, several people attended the event, which was open to the public, according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses website.
According to reports in the German media, six or seven people were killed in the shooting and at least eight other people were injured, but the police cannot confirm this.
Contrary to previous reports, according to the police, there are no fugitive perpetrators. The police say they have indications that the perpetrator is in the building and is among the dead. When police officers from a special unit of the riot police who happened to be nearby entered the building around 9:15 PM on Thursday evening, they found several dead and injured. They then heard a shot, after which the officers found the body of the possible perpetrator upstairs, a police spokesman said.
Police consider the shooting an isolated act. The motives of the shooter are not yet clear. The police therefore asks not to speculate about the motive of the perpetrator(s).
Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher has expressed his dismay at the shooting on social media. “The messages are shocking,” Tschentscher wrote on Twitter. “My deepest condolences go out to the families of the victims. The emergency services are working hard to track down the perpetrators and clear up the background.” The mayor also called on citizens to follow the instructions of the police.
After the shooting, local residents were warned to stay indoors, but this warning was lifted shortly after midnight.