Several dead and injured in shooting in Hamburg, perpetrator presumed dead | Abroad

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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 reports in the German media, six or seven people were killed in the shooting and at least eight other people were injured, but this has not yet been confirmed by the police.

Contrary to previous reports, according to the police, there are no fugitive perpetrators. There are indications that the perpetrator is among the dead in the building, a police spokesman said.

When officers from a riot police special unit that happened to be nearby entered the building, 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.

During the night, units of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service entered the building as part of the investigation. According to the German police, this is a routine procedure.

Police consider the shooting an isolated act. The motives of the shooter are not yet clear. The police therefore ask not to speculate about the motive of the perpetrator.

The mayor of Hamburg 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, as the police no longer suspected a fugitive perpetrator. There is therefore no longer any danger to the local residents.

A local resident, 23-year-old student Lara Bauch, reported late Thursday evening that shots were fired repeatedly in the building where the Jehovah’s Witnesses center was located. “Four times and each time multiple shots were fired at intervals of about 20 seconds to a minute. I looked further out the window and saw a person running frantically from the ground floor to the first floor.”

According to Bauch, the church service in the building was always well attended by a mixed audience of families, the elderly and the young.

A press conference will be organized by the police this afternoon in response to the shooting.

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