Six dead in shooting in northern Germany – suspect involved in custody dispute
Six adults were killed in a firearms attack in Stade near Hamburg on Monday. Police arrested two people, including the suspected perpetrator.
Six dead in shooting in northern Germany – suspect involved in custody dispute
On Monday, a fatal firearms attack occurred in the Lower Saxony city of Stade, west of Hamburg, in which six people lost their lives. Investigators took two people into custody, among them the presumed shooter.
The background to the act was initially unclear. However, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel, citing its own sources, much points to a private conflict – research has largely ruled out political or extremist motives.
The exact role of the second arrested person initially remained unclear, a police spokesperson told news agency Reuters. No further suspects were at large.
According to authorities, all those killed were adults. German press initially reported four women and one man, but police later corrected the figures: a total of four women and two men died in a hospital from their injuries.
The incident took place in the city centre of Stade, not far from a facility for young people. The city has approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Initially, police called on the public to avoid the area widely, but later gave the all-clear.
In a video distributed by tabloid newspaper Bild, a car with a damaged right front tyre could be seen coming to a stop on a tree-lined street. Armed officers hurried over and forced two occupants to lie face-down on the ground.
At a press conference, investigators clarified that the suspected perpetrator was embroiled in a dispute over custody of his three-month-old daughter. The victims – four women and two men – worked in the youth welfare facility in question. The infant and her mother were in an office during the attack and remained unharmed.
Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Germany, yet there have been several high-profile cases in recent years. In 2023, an armed man shot six people in a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Hamburg and subsequently took his own life. In 2016, an 18-year-old of German and Iranian origin killed at least nine people in Munich.
Source: ERR
Source: ERR