At least seven people have been confirmed killed and dozens of others injured during a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness Hall in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening, the police said in a statement on Friday.
According to several German media reports, the shooting took place at the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in the Gross Borstel district at around 9 p.m. local time.
The police statement said officers were alerted to the incident at about 9:15 p.m. and arrived at the scene quickly because they were “coincidentally very, very near,” a spokesperson said.
Police spokesman, Holger Vehren, said after officers arrived and found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, they heard a shot from an upper floor and found a fatally wounded person upstairs.
The Bild newspaper reported that seven people were dead and 25 others injured, of which eight were serious.
“It is unclear if the attacker was included in the death toll but police said that several people were seriously injured.
“As news of the shooting emerged, Hamburg police said that a major operation was underway in the GrossBorstel district of the city.
“Several streets were sealed off and the public warned by text message to avoid the area. Local residents were told to stay indoors and only to use their phones in extreme emergency” so as not to overburden the network,” the report stated.
In its statement, the police said:
“According to initial findings, shots were fired in a church on Deelbögestrasse in the GrossBorstel district.
“Several people were seriously injured, some fatally. The dead all have gunshot wounds. We are on site with a large contingent of officers
