Munich shooting: Nine confirmed dead, many injured
At least nine people have died in the shooting attack on a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, the police have confirmed.
The police have also confirmed that the attack, around the McDonald’s fast food restaurant at the Olympia shopping centre, was carried out by three men.
“At 17.50 o’ clock witnesses came forward at the police station and reported a shooting in the area of Hanau Street. Witnesses report three different people with guns,” a police statement reads.
Footage: An attacker is captured opening fire
The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany, injuring five people.
A police spokesman speaking to media earlier said:
“What I can tell you is there was an incident at the OEZ [Olympia], we have sent police and all emergency services there.
“What happened, at the moment there are three attackers… we have at the moment 100 people on site and we are trying to evacuate around 100 people”.
The spokesman said he could not answer questions about the identities of the attackers, that the injured were in “double figures” and warned Müncheners to stay indoors.
“We are all in a state of shock,” Hubertus Breuer, a journalist who lives in Schwabing and has holed himself up at home with his wife, young child and two friends, told The Local.
“If this turns out to be people with an Islamic background this is the end of the welcome culture,” he said, adding that after what happened in Würzburg where a seemingly well-integrated refugee went on a rampage with an axe, Germans would become extremely paranoid.
However, there is “currently no indication of an Islamist background”, Police say.
Footage: People running to seek shelter
Shooting in #Munich shopping mall #OEZ!! People running away to seek shelter!! pic.twitter.com/PB189s6RQy
— Thamina Stoll (@thaminastoll) July 22, 2016
Germany president, Joachim Gauck, says he is “horrified” by the shooting in Munich.
“I am with all the victims in my thoughts and all those who are mourning or fearful for loved ones,” he said in a statement.
He also offered his “solidarity” to people in the emergency services who are working this evening, trying to “protect people and save lives”.
A Muslim newspaper in Germany, Islamische Zeitung, tweets that mosques in Munich will stay open overnight for anyone who needs refuge.
Public transport in the city has been halted, leaving many people unable to get home, but the police have asked everyone to stay indoors for safety..
