Hamburg shooting - live: Gunman believed to be dead as six killed at Jehovah’s Witness church in Germany

Police mass outside the site of an alleged church centre shooting in Hamburg, Germany, on 9 March, 2023  (AP)
Police mass outside the site of an alleged church centre shooting in Hamburg, Germany, on 9 March, 2023 (AP)
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Multiple people were killed and several others were wounded in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness church centre in Hamburg, Germany.

While police in Hamburg have declined to say how many people have been killed they believe that the gunman was among the dead.

Police said: “According to the current state of affairs, we assume that there is one perpetrator.”

Newspaper Bild reported that seven people had been killed and eight more injured after the shooting, but the official death toll is yet to be confirmed by police.

Other local outlets have reported there being six victims.

“My deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher wrote on Twitter in German yesterday.

Key Points

  • Several killed and others injured after shooting at church in Hamburg

Gunman believed to be dead was sole perpetrator, say police

04:00 , Sravasti Dasgupta

While police in Hamburg have declined to say how many people have been killed at a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness church, they believe that the gunman was among the dead.

In a statement on Twitter, police said they are discontinuing operations at the shooting site.

“According to the current state of affairs, we assume that there is one perpetrator,” police said.

“Police activities in the surrounding area are being successively discontinued. Investigations into the motives behind the crime are continuing.”

Unit of armed police already in area when shooting broke out

03:30 , Josh Marcus

German police swarmed a Jehovah’s Witness facility in Hamburg after a shooting left multiple people dead on Thursday evening.

As it happened, officers from a specialised armed unit were already in the area when violence broke out.

“Police officers happened to be near the crime scene because they were on their way back to their accommodation at the police headquarters in Alsterdorf,” Welt reported.

Jehovah’s Witnesses faced history of persecution in Germany

03:00 , Josh Marcus

Jehovah’s Witnesses, like a variety of minorities in Germany, were targeted for persecution by the Nazis, as members of the group refused to join the Nazi party or let their children into the Hitler Youth.

“By 1939, an estimated 6,000 Witnesses (including some from Austria and Czechoslovakia) were detained in prisons or camps,” according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Others fled Germany, continued their religious observance in private, or ceased to observe altogether.”

ICYMI: Mass shooting strikes Hamburg

02:30 , Josh Marcus

Multiple people have died and several others are injured after a shooting in a church in Hamburg.

The Hamburg city government said the shooting took place at a Jehovah’s Witness church in the Gross Borstel district on Thursday evening.

“My deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher wrote on Twitter in German on Thursday. “The emergency services are working flat out to track down the perpetrator(s) and to clarify the background.”

Get all the details in our breaking news report.

Several killed and others injured after shooting at church in Hamburg

Mass shootings are rare in Germany

02:00 , Josh Marcus

The shooting on Thursday in a Jehovah’s Witness centre in Hamburg marks a relative rarity in Germany.

Compared to the United States, which often has more than one mass shooting per day, such killings are uncommon in Germany.

That said, in recent years, the country has experienced some shootings.

Here’s more information on those incidents.

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Six dead after gunman opens fire in Germany

How many Jehovah’s Witnesses are there in Germany?

01:40 , Josh Marcus

Jehovah’s Witnesses are a minority in Germany.

The country has a population of more than 84 million people, while there are about 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses across Germany who practice in an estimated 900 Kingdom Halls, according to The New York Times.

The front page in Germany: ‘Bloodbath in Church!'

01:25 , Josh Marcus

A shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness centre in Hamburg, Germany, has claimed upwards of six lives, according to local media.

Here’s how one publication, Bild, covered the story.

The paper described the shooting, in German, as a “Bloodbath in Church.”

A German news headline reading ‘Bloodbath in Church!’ about a shooting on 9 March in the city of Hamburg (Bild)
A German news headline reading ‘Bloodbath in Church!’ about a shooting on 9 March in the city of Hamburg (Bild)

‘We’re shattered’: Shock in local community after church shooting

01:10 , Josh Marcus

Hamburg is in shock after at least six people were killed in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness centre on Thursday evening.

“God, tonight we’re shattered, shocked,” the Archdiocese of Hamburg wrote on Twitter on Thursday in German. “Tonight our thoughts will not rest. Tonight we are with those whose lives have changed in the blink of an eye.”

Potential body of shooter found on scene: police

00:55 , Josh Marcus

Police have discovered the body of an individual who may be responsible for tonight’s shooting.

“We found a lifeless person in a community center in #GroßBorstel who we believe could be a perpetrator. In order to rule out the involvement of other perpetrators, we carry out checks and search extensively,” the Hamburg police department wrote on Twitter in German on Thursday.

Witnesses describe ‘hectic' Hamburg shooting

00:41 , Josh Marcus

Witnesses are beginning to recount what happened on Thursday evening during a shooting at a church centre in Hamburg.

“It was about four firing periods. During these periods, several shots were always fired, approximately 20 seconds to one minute apart,” said Lara Bauch, 23, according to The Guardian.

“I then looked further out of the window and saw a person running hectically from the ground floor to the first floor at the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” she added.

Photos show scene outside Hamburg church

00:23 , Josh Marcus

Police are in the process of investigating a shooting that claimed multiple lives at a Hamburg church centre.

Dramatic photos captured the operation, where local officials say they haven’t identified a motive behind the violence.

 (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
 (AP)
(AP)
 (REUTERS)
(REUTERS)

Several killed and others injured after shooting at church in Hamburg

00:11 , Josh Marcus

Multiple people have died and several others are injured after a shooting in a church in Hamburg.

The Hamburg city government said the shooting took place at a Jehovah’s Witness church in the Gross Borstel district on Thursday evening.

“My deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher wrote on Twitter in German on Thursday. “The emergency services are working flat out to track down the perpetrator(s) and to clarify the background.”

Get all the details in our breaking news story.

Several killed and others injured after shooting at church in Hamburg

A shocking shooting in Hamburg

00:10 , Josh Marcus

Good evening and welcome to our live coverage of the reported shooting at a church centre in Hamburg.

We’ll be following all the latest details live.