Six social workers killed in Stade: attacker, Turkish citizen from Hanover, detained
A 45-year-old man opened fire at a centre for mothers and children in Stade, northern Germany, killing six social workers. The suspect, a Turkish citizen born in Germany, was involved in a custody dispute over his three-month-old daughter.
Six dead after armed attack at child protection centre in Stade
A 45-year-old man opened fire on Monday at a mother and child reception centre in Stade, a city in northern Germany, killing six people, according to News.ro citing AFP. The victims — four women and two men — were social workers tasked with child protection.
The attacker had been scheduled to meet with several of the victims that morning to discuss custody of his three-month-old daughter, who was present at the location with her mother. The director of the Lüneburg commissariat, Kathrin Schuol, announced this at a press conference. She did not specify whether the mother and child were living in the centre.
The baby's mother told police that she was no longer in a relationship with the suspect.
Four victims shot "in a particularly cruel manner"
Emergency services received multiple telephone calls and upon arrival found that four people had been shot "in a particularly cruel manner", according to statements from Schuol. A fifth person died during resuscitation procedures, and a sixth died later from their wounds. Another person was injured, with their condition reported as stable, a police spokesperson said.
Chase and detention
Following the attack, the suspect attempted to flee in a car driven by a 65-year-old woman who had a "close relationship" with the family. Police opened fire on the vehicle, but did not injure either passenger. A video recording published by German tabloid Bild showed what was presented as footage of the arrest: a car with a burst rear tyre was stopped by a massive police deployment, and the driver exited the vehicle and lay on the road before being immobilised by officers.
Profile of the suspect
The suspect is a Turkish citizen born in Germany, with residence in Hanover, approximately 200 kilometres south of Stade, according to a police statement. He was known to authorities in connection with threats, but was not considered "violent". He did not hold a firearms licence.
Police announced that there was no longer any "danger to the public". A nursery school and a school located in the same district of Stade were not targeted, a municipal representative clarified earlier.
Official reactions
The land's interior minister, Daniela Behrens, described the attack — committed "for family reasons" — as "an act of violence of extreme cruelty". German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned an "appalling act of violence" on platform X and said he was "deeply shocked" by its scale, perpetrated "in a space meant to offer protection".
Context: mass armed attacks in Europe
Germany has experienced several lethal armed attacks in recent years, some with political motivations, others of a personal nature. In March 2023, a former member of Jehovah's Witnesses, aged 35, killed six people in Hamburg before taking his own life. In February 2020, a right-wing extremist killed nine people in Hanau.
"The majority of mass armed attacks — that is, those resulting in at least four deaths — are acts of domestic violence," researcher Alexandre Rodde, a specialist in mass attacks and terrorism, told AFP. He noted that in 2025 similar attacks occurred in Graz (Austria) and Örebro (Sweden), with ten deaths each, and in Velestovo (Montenegro), with 13 victims.
Source: News.ro