Six dead in shooting in Stade
Six adults were killed in a shooting in the north German city of Stade on Monday. Police arrested two people.
Six dead in shooting in Stade
Six adults were killed in a shooting in the north German city of Stade on Monday. Police arrested two people, including the alleged gunman.
The incident occurred in Stade city centre, a city of approximately 50,000 inhabitants west of Hamburg, near a youth centre. A police spokesperson said the motive was initially unclear. The news magazine Spiegel reported, citing its own sources, that it was likely a personal conflict rather than a political or extremist motive.
The role of the second arrested person is currently unclear. Another police spokesperson explained that no further suspects were at large. Among the victims were four women and two men who worked at the youth assistance centre. The exact number of injured is not yet known.
According to police, the alleged gunman was involved in a dispute over custody of his three-month-old daughter. The girl and her mother were in the office during the shooting and remained unharmed.
Initially, police urged people to avoid the scene, but later stated that there was no danger to the public. In a video clip distributed by the newspaper Bild, a car with a broken right front tyre could be seen coming to a stop on a tree-lined street. Armed police officers then ran towards the vehicle and arrested two people, who were forced to lie on the ground.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Germany. In 2023, an armed person shot six people in Hamburg in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and subsequently took their own life. In 2016, an 18-year-old man of German-Iranian descent killed at least nine people in Munich.
Source: ERR