According to police, seven people were killed in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in Hamburg, Germany, including an unborn baby.
They claim the gunman carried out the attack alone and later committed suicide. The suspect, named only as Philipp F, 35, is a former member of the religious community, who had “ill-feelings”.
According to a police press conference on Friday, four men and two women were killed. A seven-month-old foetus was also killed in the womb, but its mother survived. All of those who died were German citizens.
Eight people were hurt, four of them seriously. Among those injured were Ugandans and Ukrainians.
According to police, the first emergency call came in at 21:04 local time (20:04 GMT) on Thursday, reporting that shots had been fired in the building on Deelböge street in the Gross Borstel district.
Officers were on site four minutes later, and they were almost immediately joined by special forces. The officers had to break windows to enter the building where about 50 people had gathered.
The suspect – described as a “sports shooter” who had a gun licence – had fled to the first floor. His “lifeless body” was found shortly afterwards. He had managed to shoot nine magazines of ammunition, and 20 more were found in his backpack.
German Senator Andy Grote said “fast and decisive actions” by police officers had saved many lives. He also described the attack as the “worst crime” in Hamburg’s recent history.
Gregor Miesbach, who filmed the gunman shooting through a first-floor window, told the Bild newspaper: “I didn’t realise what was happening. I was filming with my phone, and only realised through the zoom that someone was shooting at Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“I heard loud gunshots… I saw a man with a firearm shooting through a window and filmed it,” he said.
Local residents were told not to leave their homes amid the ongoing police operation. Footage showed police escorting people out of the meeting hall, some to ambulances. The reasons behind the shooting were “still completely unclear”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described it as a “brutal act of violence”, saying his thoughts were with the victims and their relatives.
In a statement, the Jehovah’s Witness community in Germany said it was “deeply saddened by the horrific attack on its members at the Kingdom Hall in Hamburg after a religious service”.
Forensic experts in white suits worked through the night inside the brightly lit interior of the meeting house. Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a Christian-based religious movement, founded in the US at the end of the 19th Century.
In its latest report from 2022, the movement says there are about 8.7 million Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide, including about 170,000 in Germany. In the city of Hamburg, there are believed to be nearly 4,000 members of the organisation.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are probably best known for their door-to-door evangelical work; witnessing from house to house and offering Bible literature.
Although Christian-based, the group believes that the traditional Christian Churches have deviated from the true teachings of the Bible, and do not work in full harmony with God. bbc