8 killed in shootings in German city, suspect found dead
Posted February 19, 2020 8:32 pm.
Last Updated February 19, 2020 11:39 pm.
German police say that the man suspected of shooting several people in the city of Hanau has been found dead at his home.
Police said in a tweet early Thursday that officers also found another body at the same address. No details were released on the other person.
Police gave no details of the suspected gunman but said “there are currently no indications of further perpetrators.”
Eight people had been killed and five wounded in the shootings in and outside two hookah lounges in the southwestern German city late Wednesday.
The shootings in Hanau also wounded about five people. Police said a dark vehicle was spotted leaving the location of the first attack about 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), and another shooting was reported at a second site.
Police officers swarmed central Hanau, cordoning off the area of one of the shootings as a helicopter hovered overhead. A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen, with shattered glass next to it. Forensic experts in white overalls collected evidence.
A short police statement gave no information on the identity or nationality of the victims and said a motive was not immediately known.
Police later said shots were fired inside and in front of two hookah lounges, news agency dpa reported. Three people were killed and at least one seriously hurt in central Hanau. At the second site, about 2 1/2 kilometres (1 1/2 miles) away, five people were killed.
Hookah lounges are places where people gather to smoke flavoured tobacco from Middle Eastern water pipes.
“This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness,” Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky told the Bild newspaper. Lawmaker Katja Leikert, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right party who represents Hanau in the German parliament, tweeted that it was “a real horror scenario for us all.”
Hanau is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Frankfurt. It has about 100,000 inhabitants and is in Hesse state.
Police from neighbouring Bavaria were deployed to help their local colleagues, dpa reported.
