Several people have been killed in a shooting at a Jehovah's Witness centre in Hamburg, with the gunman believed to be among the dead, German police said Thursday. Police have not given a death count, but multiple local media outlets reported that the shooting had left seven dead and eight seriously injured.
In a building in the city's northern district of Gross Borstel, police said an event had been taking place on Thursday evening.
Jehovah's Witnesses had gathered for a weekly Bible study meeting, according to local daily Hamburger Abendblatt.
There are about 175,000 people in Germany, including 3,800 in Hamburg, who are Jehovah's Witnesses, a US Christian movement set up in the late 19th century that preaches non-violence and is known for door-to-door evangelism.
The first officers at the scene found several lifeless bodies and seriously wounded people, police said.
Hamburger Abendblatt reported that 17 unhurt people, who had been at the event, were being attended to by the fire brigade.
Officers heard a shot in the "upper part of the building" before finding a body in the area where it rang out, police said.
"We have no indications of a perpetrator on the run," said the police spokesman. Instead, officers have "indications that a perpetrator may have been in the building and may be even among the dead."
The spokesman added that the person uncovered in the upper part of the building was "possibly" the perpetrator.
"We have found a lifeless person in a community centre in [Gross Borstel] which we assume could be a perpetrator," Munich police tweeted early Friday morning.
"According to the current state of affairs, we assume that there is one perpetrator," police said in a separate tweet.
Germany has been rocked by several attacks in recent years.
-AFP
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