A deadly shooting erupted at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening, leaving several dead as police said they believed the attacker had acted alone.
Authorities have yet to give an official toll but at least six people are dead and seven people injured.
The incident in the northern German city occurred around 9 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) with police initially unsure how many shooters might be involved.
But later updates from the city’s police force suggested there was just one attacker, who may have died at the scene.
“At present, we believe there is one perpetrator,” Hamburg police said in their latest update on their Twitter account, hours after armed officers scoured the scene for evidence and suspects.
“All police measures in the vicinity are being successively discontinued. The investigation into the circumstances of the crime continues.”
A police spokesperson earlier said that authorities were investigating whether the shooter was among the several people found dead at the scene.
After being called to the building, police saw dead and injured people on the bottom floor where an event was taking place, Hamburg police spokesman Holger Vehren told NTV.
Officers also heard a shot on the top floor of the building when they first entered it and found a dead person upstairs.
Police believe it may have been the shooter but said no further information could be given at this point, a spokesperson said
Footage from the scene showed numerous armed police officers inside and around the Kingdom Hall while a helicopter flew overhead. A bomb disposal team was deployed at one point.
The streets around the place of worship have been cordoned off, and police earlier warned of “extreme danger” in the area, the spokesperson added.
Nearby residents have been urged to stay indoors.
There is “no confirmed information on the motive for the crime,” police said on Twitter as they urged people not to share any unconfirmed assumptions.
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher expressed his “deepest sympathy” for the relatives of the victims, calling the reports of the incident “shocking” on Twitter.
“My deepest sympathy goes to the relatives of the victims. Emergency services are working at full speed to pursue the perpetrator(s),” he wrote.
Shootings in Germany are not unheard of, though rarer than in the United States
In January 2022, at least one person was killed after man opened fire on students in a lecture hall at Heidelberg University in southwestern Germany.
In 2020, a mass shooting at two shisha bars in Hanau killed several people.