By Fabian Bimmer
HAMBURG (Reuters) – Eight people were killed and others wounded in a shooting attack at a temple of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg, and the gunman was among those killed, police said on Friday. .
In a statement on Twitter, police said they believed there was a perpetrator in Thursday night’s attack and were investigating the motives.
The shooter appeared to have been a former member of the Jehovah’s Witness community, reported Spiegel magazine. The man was aged between 30 and 40 and was not known to authorities as an extremist, the report said, citing unnamed sources.
A Hamburg police spokesman could not confirm the details, and mentioned a press conference planned for late morning (local time).
Police received a call shortly after 9pm local time on Thursday and officers arrived at the scene to find several people seriously injured and some dead.
“Then they heard a gunshot coming from upstairs, they went upstairs and found one more person,” said a police spokesman.
Bild newspaper reported that eight people were injured in Hamburg, which is Germany’s second most populous city and home to the country’s biggest port.
Cell phone footage recorded by a resident across the street from the Temple of the Kingdom of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Alsterdorf district showed a person outside the building firing through a window.
“I heard loud gunshots,” said the witness, who declined to be identified. “I saw a man shooting at a window with a firearm.”
Reuters could not immediately establish how the gunman died.
Germany has been rocked by a series of shootings in recent years. In February 2020, a gunman with suspected far-right links shot dead nine people, including migrants from Turkey, in the western city of Hanau before killing himself and his mother.
In October 2019, a gunman killed two people when he opened fire outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.
Hamburg’s mayor expressed shock at Thursday’s bloodshed.
“I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Forces are working at full speed to pursue the culprits and clarify the background,” tweeted Peter Tschentscher.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers, Sabine Wollrab and Emma-Victoria Farr)
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