In Germany, a man shoots seven people in a Jehovah's Witness community, one of the wounded is a Ukrainian
There could have been more victims if police had not intervened so quickly, Interior Minister says
On Friday in Germany, a gunman killed six people, including an unborn child, at a Jehovah's Witness center in Hamburg, and then took his own life as police stormed the building.
Source. This was reported by CNN.
According to the Hamburg prosecutor, the attacker, 35-year-old German citizen Philip F., was a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses community.
German police are looking for a possible motive after he opened fire at an event attended by 50 people.
"Hamburg has never seen such a mass shooting," Interior Minister Andy Grote said at a press conference on Friday.
According to Grote, the attacker acted alone. "There could have been more casualties if the police had not intervened so quickly," he said.
The mother of the murdered unborn child survived the gunshot wounds, Hamburg police chief Matthias Tresp told reporters. Police said four men and two women, all German citizens aged 33 to 60, were killed in the attack.
Eight people were injured, four of them in serious condition. Police reported that among them were six women and two men; six were German citizens, one victim was from Ukraine, and one was from Uganda. The victims are not related to the suspected perpetrator, Tresp said.
The suspect left the Jehovah's Witness community about 18 months ago, "apparently not in good standing," Thomas Radschuweit, a Hamburg security spokesman, told reporters.
Philipp F. was a former member of Jehovah's Witnesses, but it is unclear whether he was expelled from the community or left voluntarily. According to Radschuweit, the suspect had no previous problems with the Hamburg authorities. It is not yet known why the suspect carried out the shooting, he added, and there are no signs of a political motive.
Ralf Martin Meyer, Hamburg's police chief, said an investigation into his mental state was ongoing, adding that the suspect may have suffered from a mental illness. Meyer said he had been a legal owner of a semi-automatic pistol since December 2022. The shooter used 9 magazines of ammunition during the attack.
Politicians and religious leaders expressed their condolences, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the "brutal act of violence".
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