Shooting at Jehovah’s Witnesses church in Hamburg kills 7

At least seven people were killed in Hamburg, and eight more (according to other sources 25) people were injured when a gunman opened fire in the church of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Police believe the shooter is among the dead.

The incident occurred at 21.00 local time on Dilbege Street in the Hamburg district of Gross Borstel, in northern Germany, reports dw. All of the victims had bullet wounds on their bodies. Information about possible motives for the crime, police say, is not yet available.

A “large-scale search operation” is underway in the area of ​​the incident. The police urged the residents of Hamburg not to take to the streets in the area where the crime took place, and to use a mobile phone only in exceptional cases, so as not to overload the network. Later, a police spokesman said that law enforcement had no evidence that the attacker could have fled the crime scene:

“We have no indication that the perpetrator is on the run.”

Law enforcers believe that the shooter himself may be among the dead, and the crime was committed in a state of amok *, that is, blind unmotivated aggression. The version is supported by the fact that after the arrival of the police at the scene of the tragic incident, another shot was fired in the building, and on one of the upper floors the body of a “mortally wounded man” was then found, which may turn out to be a criminal. The police spokesman stressed that during the operation, the guards did not fire a single shot. Mayor of Hamburg Peter Tschencher said:

“I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims. The police are working at full capacity to pursue the perpetrators and find out all the circumstances.”

In recent years, Germany has been rocked by several terrorist attacks carried out by both jihadists and far-right extremists. Among the deadliest terrorist attacks carried out by Islamist extremists was the December 2016 Berlin Christmas market crash that killed 12 people. The attacker from Tunisia, who was denied asylum, was a supporter of the jihadist group “Islamic State”.

* Amok (meng-amok – fall into a blind rage and kill) – a state of uncontrolled rage, which leads to the destruction of everything around.

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