According to police, the suspected gunman in Thursday’s shooting in the northern city of Hamburg was also apparently killed.
On Friday, police confirmed that a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Hamburg, Germany, had killed seven people, including the suspected gunman.
Police reported that several others were injured in the shooting, some with serious injuries.
Police released a statement early Friday stating that on March 9, 2023, at around 9:00 p.m. local time, a suspect had fired shots at visitors attending an event in a church on Deelböge Street. The statement noted that, according to current information, eight people were fatally injured, apparently including the alleged perpetrator.
Hamburg police tweeted early Friday that they had found a lifeless person in a community centre in #GroßBorstel, whom they believe could be the perpetrator.
According to police spokesman Holger Vehren, “We only know that several people died here; several people are wounded; they were taken to hospitals.”
Vehren also revealed that police were informed about the shooting at 9:15 p.m. and arrived shortly after, where they heard a gunshot from the upstairs area of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall.
Police urged the public not to spread rumours and stated there was no reliable information on the motive for the crime. Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher called the police reports “shocking” and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families.
According to the Council of Europe, Hamburg is Germany’s second-largest city, with a wider metropolitan region home to over 5 million people.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, founded in the United States in 1872, is a Christian denomination with over 8 million members worldwide.
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