Germany: Several deaths, injuries in shooting inside Hamburg church

Several people have been killed in a shooting in a church in Hamburg, German police said Thursday.

The shooting took place at around 9pm, police said, adding that there were “one or more unknown” assailants.

“According to first indications, shots were fired in a church in Deelboege street in the Grossborstel district. Several people were seriously injured, some even fatally,” police said on Twitter.

Police are focusing their investigation on the motive for the attack on the Jehovah’s Witnesses centre as they believe a gunman acting alone was responsible for the deadly violence, Reuters news agency has reported.

Police have declined to say how many people were killed but said the gunman was believed to be among the dead.

Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that seven people died and eight were wounded in the shooting.