Hamburg church mass shooting: At least seven dead, several others wounded in German city

At least six people have been killed and seven injured in a horrific shooting inside a Jehovah’s Witnesses church in Hamburg.

The shooting took place at around 9pm on Thursday (Friday morning NZ time), German police said, with shots fired in a church in Deelboege street in the Grossborstel district.

Police spokesman Holger Vehren said investigators had “indications that a perpetrator may have been in the building and may be even among the dead”.

“We have no indications of a perpetrator on the run,” he added.

According to police, officers were able to access the site quickly after distress calls came in.

The first police officers at the scene found several lifeless bodies and seriously wounded people.

They also heard a shot in the “upper part of the building” before finding a person in the area where it rang out.

Images emerging from the scene show a large number of heavily armed police storming the building before then escorting people out.

Armed police officers near the scene of a shooting in Hamburg, Germany. Photo / AP

Officers did not need to use their firearms during the incident.

Earlier, authorities had alerted people to an “extreme danger” in the area using a catastrophe warning app.

Residents were told to stay indoors and avoid the area, police said, adding that streets surrounding the church have been cordoned off.

Police are yet to release an exact death toll, but several German national media said seven people were killed.

Police said there is “no reliable information on the motive of the crime”, and urged people not to speculate.

Local daily Hamburger Abendblatt reported that 17 unhurt people, who had been at the event, were being attended to by the fire brigade.

German media also reported nearby residents were told not to leave their homes.

The city’s mayor, Peter Tschentscher, tweeted a message of support to the victims and their families.

“I extend my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims,” he said.

“The forces are working at full speed to pursue the perpetrators and clarify the background.”

An estimated 175,000 Germans, including 3800 in Hamburg, are Jehovah’s Witnesses, a US Christian movement set up in the late 19th century that preaches non-violence and is known for door-to-door evangelism.

Germany has been rocked by several attacks in recent years, both by jihadists and far-right extremists.

Among the deadliest committed by Islamist extremists was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

Armed police officers near the scene of a shooting in Hamburg, Germany. Photo / AP

The Tunisian attacker, a failed asylum seeker, was a supporter of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Europe’s most populous nation remains a target for jihadist groups in particular because of its participation in the anti-Islamic State coalition in Iraq and Syria.

Between 2013 and 2021, the number of Islamists considered dangerous in the country had multiplied by five to 615, according to interior ministry data.

But Germany has also been hit by several far-right assaults in recent years, sparking accusations that the government was not doing enough to stamp out neo-Nazi violence.

In February 2020 a far-right extremist shot dead 10 people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau.

And in 2019, two people were killed after a neo-Nazi tried to storm a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Emergency alert sent to people in Hamburg, Germany after mass shooting pic.twitter.com/fv9Rsuembs

— BNO News Live (@BNODesk) March 9, 2023