Five women and a man have been killed in a shooting at a youth welfare facility in north Germany, police said. Two people including the suspected shooter were arrested.
The incident took place in Stade, a town close to the port city of Hamburg, on Monday afternoon. Police said the victims were all shot inside the building. Five died at the scene and the sixth died in hospital. Police said the death toll could rise.
Police cordoned off the area in a cobbled, tree-lined street with redbrick homes, and forensic experts and plainclothes officers were at the scene. Police initially told residents to steer clear of the area but later said there was no danger to the general population.
A police spokesperson told AFP “a male principal offender and a female companion” were arrested, while a separate police statement mentioned a third suspect being held.
The spokesperson said investigators believed “it is not a case of femicide, nor does it involve a political background or anything of that nature. Rather it is an extended family tragedy.”
Der Spiegel said information it had obtained from security forces indicated that the incident was unlikely to be a political or terrorist act but was probably related to a private dispute.
A witness saw a young man and a woman trying to flee the scene by car before being intercepted by police, the news site Focus Online reported. The witness said police fired at least 15 shots at the silver Mercedes after it failed to heed warnings to stop. The shots brought the car to an abrupt halt and pictures showed it with a blown-out back tyre.
Video footage filmed by a witness and published on the website of the newspaper Bild showed a person wearing a white T-shirt slump out of the driver’s seat on to the road where the car had stopped. A police officer was shown pointing his gun at the person.
On the other side of the car, another armed officer was seen attending to the passenger, who was lying on a grassy verge. An armed officer was seen running towards the rear of the car while other officers approached from the front.
Local media reported that several pastoral care workers had arrived at the youth centre, which is situated close to a police station.
A home for mothers and children is located in the same building but no one connected to it was hurt, police said.
Speaking on behalf of the town administration, Carsten Brokelmann, a councillor, said: “I would like to thank the police officers for their efforts in this chaotic situation.” He said the administration sent its “deep condolences to the victims of this terrible act and their families and loved ones”.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Germany, especially when compared with the US, but there have been a spate of high-profile cases. In 2023, a gunman in Hamburg shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah’s Witness worship hall. In 2016, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man who was obsessed with mass killings killed at least nine people in Munich.
