8 people killed in deadly shooting at church in Germany
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Eight people were killed and others were wounded in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses church in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, AP cited police as saying on Friday.
Police has not identified the shooter who could be among the dead in the building.
“The police measures in the surrounding area are gradually being discontinued. Investigations into the background of the crime are continuing,” Hamburg police tweeted.
The city’s mayor, Peter Tschentscher, expressed shock at the shooting on Twitter. Sending his sympathies to the victims’ families, he said emergency services were doing their utmost to clarify the situation.
“We assume that there is one perpetrator,” police said late on Thursday adding, “Investigations into the motives behind the crime are continuing.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, described the shooting as “a brutal act of violence.”
Germany has been shaken by a number of shootings in the last few years. In February 2020, a gunman with suspected far-right links shot dead nine people, including migrants from Turkey, in the western town of Hanau before killing himself and his mother, according to Reuters.