Six dead in shooting at youth welfare facility in Stade
In a firearms attack on a youth welfare facility in Stade, Lower Saxony, six people were killed. The suspected perpetrator was arrested.
Six dead in shooting at youth welfare facility in Stade
In a firearms attack on a youth welfare facility in Stade in northern Germany, six people were killed on Monday. Police suspect a domestic motive in connection with a custody dispute.
Five people – four women and one man – died at the scene of the attack at the facility on Dankersstraße, police said. A sixth victim, also an adult, died later in hospital from his injuries. All those killed were employees of the youth centre or associated organisations.
Several other people were injured in the attack, some of them seriously, according to the German Press Agency (dpa). Police did not provide specific numbers or identities of the injured.
The facility on Dankersstraße, located south of the city centre, provides temporary accommodation for pregnant women and young mothers with their children.
Police arrested a main suspect. Two further people were checked as part of "police measures" on suspicion of involvement, though the authorities provided no details.
Daniela Behrens, Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, described the act at a press conference as "an extremely violent crime in cold blood, apparently in the context of a custody dispute". Investigators were working under intense pressure to clarify the motive and the exact course of events.
After the shooting, video footage showed a large police presence as well as other emergency services and several ambulances on a residential street.
Witness Vitali Mertens, who lives opposite the scene of the attack, said he heard gunshots and the entire area was "immediately cordoned off".
Stade has approximately 50,000 residents and is located around 40 kilometres from Hamburg. In Germany, mass shootings are rare owing to strict firearms laws, but they occasionally occur. Authorities are investigating how the suspected perpetrator obtained the firearm used.
Source: Yahoo News Canada/AP
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)