This Thursday, March 8, a man of German citizenship killed seven people, in a temple of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the shooting, four men, two women and the newborn son of another woman died, who was injured
On the night of Thursday, March 8, eight people died and several were injured in a shooting that occurred at a Jehovah’s Witnesses temple in the German city of Hamburg.
Police reported the attacker, identified as 35-year-old Philipp F., who committed suicide after the fact.
So far the reasons for the attack are unknown. The authorities rule out a political or terrorist motive. The attacker could have mental problems, according to the police officers who have participated in a press conference in Hamburg.
On Friday, March 10, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the event as “a brutal act of violence,” saying his thoughts are with the victims and their families.
In a statement, the Jehovah’s Witness community in Germany expressed its “deep sadness at the horrific attack on its members at the Kingdom Temple in Hamburg after a religious ceremony.”
the shooting
Holger Vehren, a police spokesman, said they received a call at about 9:15 p.m. local time on Thursday alerting them to shooting at a building on Deelböge Street in the Gross Borstel district.
The agents who arrived found people seriously injured by firearms and some dead.
“The agents themselves heard a shot coming from the upper floors of the building. They went upstairs and found a body there,” the police spokesman said.
It is believed that a group of people were gathered, possibly for a Bible study, when the shooting began at about 9:00 p.m. local time.
Gregor Miesbach, who filmed the attacker shooting out of a first-floor window, told Bild newspaper: “I heard loud shots, I went to the window to take a picture of the situation. I saw a man with a gun shooting through a window and I filmed it.”
For her part, Lara Bauch, a 23-year-old student who lives nearby, told the DPA news agency that “there were about four bursts of shots, several shots in each burst, with pauses between each of 20 seconds to a minute.”
He added that he could see through his window a person running frantically from the ground floor to the first floor. “The man was wearing dark clothing and moving fast.”
Nearby residents were asked not to leave their homes while a police operation was underway.
Hamburg’s Interior Minister Andy Grote reported on Twitter that police special forces and a large number of officers had been mobilized to the scene.
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