Daniel Reinhardt/AFP via Getty Police stand outside a Jehovah's Witness center where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany, on late March 9, 2023.
At least six people are dead in a mass shooting at a church in Hamburg, Germany, on March 9, 2023, according to Reuters.
The gunman then killed himself inside the Jehovah’s Witness worship hall, Reuters reported. Eight other people were injured, including a woman who was seven months pregnant. Her unborn daughter was among the victims, according to Reuters.
Hamburg police wrote on Twitter, “According to initial findings, a shot was fired in a church on Deelböge street in the #GroßBorstel district. Several people were seriously injured, some even fatally. We are on site with a large contingent of forces. Further information follows. #schießerei #h0903.”
“Several people have been killed and some were injured after a shooting in Hamburg, police say,” the German wire service DPA tweeted.
We only know that several people died here; several people are wounded, they were taken to hospitals,” police spokesman Holger Vehren said to CBS News.
Here’s what you need to know:
As Many as Six People May Have Died, Reports Say
According to DW, at least six people have died in the shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness center along Deelböge street.
Hamburg police tweeted, “So far, there is no reliable information on the motive for the crime. We ask that you do not share unsecured assumptions and/or spread rumors.”
Vehren told CBS News that the shooting call came in at 9:15 p.m. Officers found “people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor,” according to CBS, which reported that police then “heard a shot from an upper floor and found a fatally wounded person upstairs who may have been a shooter.”
Vehren told CBS there was “no indication that a shooter was on the run and that it appeared likely that the perpetrator was either in the building or among the dead.”
Later, police said there was one shooter, CBS reported.
The Jehovah’s Witness community in Germany said in a statement obtained by BBC that it was “deeply saddened by the horrific attack on its members at the Kingdom Hall in Hamburg after a religious service.”
BBC reported that people may have been attending a Bible study. A neighbor told BBC that she had “heard several bursts of gunfire and, later, had seen police officers carrying people out of the building.”
Officials in Hamburg Warned the Public to Avoid the Area, Reports Say
🟥 AT LEAST SIX DEAD AND MANY INJURED IN A SHOOTING AT A JEHOVAH’S WITNESS CENTER IN ALSTERDORF, HAMBURG (GERMANY).
In an update, DPA tweeted, “One or more people shot at people in a Hamburg church in Groß Borstel, the city’s interior authorities say in a warning to the public to avoid the area.”
Video showed the aftermath from the scene.
Hamburg police wrote on Twitter, “#Aktuell there is a larger police operation in #Alsterdorf. We are currently examining the background and will provide more information here shortly.”
According to NDTV, about 3,800 Jehovah’s Witnesses live in Hamburg and about 175,000 live in Germany.
“The dead all have gunshot wounds,” a police spokesperson said, according to DW. Police arrived quickly at the scene because they were already in the area, DW reported.
READ NEXT: Alex Murdaugh’s Net Worth.