A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses centre in the German city of Hamburg has left eight people dead, including the suspected gunman, police said Friday, as the motive for the attack remained unclear.
Several more people were injured in the attack on Thursday evening at the Kingdom Hall building in the port city of Hamburg, where Jehovah’s Witnesses members were attending a religious service.
The first emergency calls were made around 2015 GMT after shots rang out at the building in the city’s northern district of Gross Borstel.
Hamburg police are due to give an update at a press conference around midday, but earlier said they were still working to find out the motive for the attack.
“At the moment there is no reliable information on the motive of the crime,” police said, urging people not to speculate.
An alarm for “extreme danger” in the area was sounded using a catastrophe warning app, but Germany’s Federal Office for Civil Protection lifted it shortly after 3:00 am local time.
The port city’s mayor, Peter Tschentscher, expressed shock at the shooting on Twitter.
Police have asked witnesses to come forward and upload any pictures or videos they may have to a special website.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said investigators were “working flat-out to determine the background” to the attack.
Credit: Vanguard News
