We’re ending our live coverage of the attack. You can read our full report of what happened tonight in Hamburg below:
Summary
Here is what we know about tonight’s shooting in Hamburg, Germany:
Shortly after 9pm police were alerted to a shooting inside a Jehovah’s Witness centre in the northern German city of Hamburg. Seven people were killed and 25 injured, some seriously, police said.
Police said the gunman was believed to be among the dead. “We have no indications of a perpetrator on the run,” a spokesperson said soon after the attack. Later, police said that they had found a “lifeless person … who we believe could be a perpetrator”. Investigations were ongoing to rule out the involvement of further perpetrators, police said.
A special police unit happened to be driving past the centre when they heard shots being fired, local media outlets reported. The USE taskforce officers were on their way to their accommodation at the police headquarters in Alsterdorf when they stopped to investigate the attack, entering the building and evacuating people.
The Hamburg police say that there is currently “no reliable information about the motive for the crime”. The police said on a Twitter post, “So far, there is no reliable information on the motive for the crime. We ask that you do not share unsecured assumptions and/or spread rumours.”
Police alerted people to an “extreme danger” in the area using a catastrophe warning app. Residents must stay indoors and avoid the area, police said, adding that streets surrounding the church have been cordoned off.
Hamburg’s mayor, Peter Tschentscher, has responded to the attack, calling it “shocking”. “The reports from Alsterdorf / Groß Borstel are shocking. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” he said.
