CNN
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Seven folks had been killed throughout a mass taking pictures on Thursday at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Corridor within the German metropolis of Hamburg in what the nation’s chief denounced a “brutal act of violence.”
”Eight individuals are lifeless – together with the alleged perpetrator,” Hamburg police mentioned of their newest assertion. “Different folks had been injured within the incident, some significantly.”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany mentioned in an announcement: “The non secular group is deeply saddened by the horrific assault on its members on the Kingdom Corridor in Hamburg after a spiritual service.”
The slayings within the northern German metropolis occurred round 9 p.m. native time (3 p.m. ET) with police initially not sure what number of shooters could be concerned.
However later updates from town’s police pressure recommended there was only one attacker, who might have died on the scene.
“At current, we imagine there may be one perpetrator,” Hamburg police mentioned of their newest replace on their Twitter account, hours after armed officers scoured the scene for proof and suspects.
“All police measures within the neighborhood are being successively discontinued. The investigation into the circumstances of the crime continues.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz led politicians in denouncing the homicide spree within the northern German metropolis.
“A number of members of a Jehovah group fell sufferer to a brutal act of violence final evening. My ideas are with them and their family members,” he wrote on Twitter.
A police spokesperson earlier mentioned that authorities had been investigating whether or not the shooter was among the many a number of folks discovered lifeless on the scene.
After being known as to the constructing, police noticed lifeless and injured folks on the underside flooring the place an occasion was going down, Hamburg police spokesman Holger Vehren informed NTV.
Officers additionally heard a shot on the highest flooring of the constructing once they first entered it and located a lifeless particular person upstairs.
Police imagine it could have been the shooter however mentioned no additional data could possibly be given at this level, a spokesperson mentioned.
Footage from the scene confirmed quite a few armed law enforcement officials inside and across the Kingdom Corridor whereas a helicopter flew overhead. A bomb disposal workforce was deployed at one level.
The streets across the place of worship have been cordoned off, and police earlier warned of “excessive hazard” within the space, the spokesperson added.
Close by residents have been urged to remain indoors.
There’s “no confirmed data on the motive for the crime,” police mentioned on Twitter as they urged folks to not share any unconfirmed assumptions.
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher expressed his “deepest sympathy” for the kinfolk of the victims, calling the experiences of the incident “surprising” on Twitter.
Messages of assist got here in from Hamburg’s non secular communities.
“The information of this bloody crime in Hamburg-Alsterdorf is surprising and leaves me speechless… My deepest sympathy goes to the kinfolk of the victims,” Father Sascha-Philipp Geißler, a senior member of Hamburg’s Catholic diocese, mentioned in an announcement.
Shootings in Germany aren’t remarkable, although rarer than in the USA
In January 2022, not less than one particular person was killed after man opened hearth on college students in a lecture corridor at Heidelberg College in southwestern Germany.
In 2020, a mass taking pictures at two shisha bars in Hanau killed a number of folks.
