At least 7 dead and several wounded in deadly shots at German church

Hamburg - At least seven people were killed and several others injured after a deadly shooting broke out at a Jehovah's Witnesses church in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening.

The incident was reported around 9 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) in the Groß-Borstel district. Police said the shooter is believed to be among the dead.

"We have no evidence of a perpetrator on the run," said the police shortly after the attack. They later found a "lifeless person" believed to be the perpetrator.

In a Twitter post early Friday, Hamburg police said they assumed there was only one shooter and that investigations "onto the motive for the crime are ongoing."

“All we know is that several people died here; several people are injured, they were taken to hospitals," police spokesman Holger Vehren was quoted as saying. He has no information about the severity of her injuries.

The German police will hold a press conference later on Friday on the status of their investigation into the attack.

Residents around the site said they received alerts on their cellphones about a "life-threatening situation."

"We heard gunshots," an unnamed witness told reporters. "There were 12 continuous shots...then we saw people in black bags being taken away," he added.

“There were about 4 shootings. During these periods, several shots were always fired at intervals of about 20 seconds to a minute," another eyewitness was quoted as saying in media reports.

"I then looked further out the window and saw a person from the Jehovah's Witnesses frantically running from the ground floor to the first floor." The people were later carried into the street by police officers.

Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher expressed his "deepest sympathy" to the families of the victims and described the incident in a post on Twitter as "shocking".

“My deepest condolences go to the families of the victims. Emergency services are working flat out to track the perpetrator(s)," he wrote.

The reports from Alsterdorf / Groß Borstel are shocking. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims. The emergency services are working flat out to track down the perpetrator(s) and to clarify the background. Please note the instructions from the @PolizeiHamburg. https://t.co/38UcdguLzH

— Peter Tschentscher (@TschenPe) March 9, 2023

The Jehovah's Witnesses, an international Christian denomination, was founded in the United States in the 19th century and has a history of more than 100 years in Germany with millions of followers.

There have been several mass shootings in Germany in recent years, sending waves of shock and fear across the country.

In January 2022, at least one person was killed after a man suspected of having far-right connections opened fire on students in a lecture hall at Heidelberg University in south-west Germany. In 2020, several people died in a mass shooting at two shisha bars in Hanau.

In 2020, several people died in a mass shooting in two bars in Hanau.