A man suspected of going on a killing spree in Hamburg was a former Jehovah’s Witness, German officials say.
Police said seven people were killed – which officials said includes an unborn baby – inside a Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses while eight were hurt, including four seriously.
The gunman, a 35-year-old German citizen, turned the weapon on himself, the state interior minister Andy Grote told a briefing on Friday.
A quick police intervention prevented more people from being killed, Mr Grote said, adding that the gunman acted alone.
The scene of the shooting was a Kingdom Hall, next to a car repair shop in the Gross Borstel district, a few miles from Hamburg city centre.
Police spokesman Holger Vehren said officers were alerted to the shooting at about 9.15pm and arrived on the scene quickly.
After officers arrived and found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, they heard a shot from an upper floor and found a fatally wounded person upstairs who may have been the gunman, he said.
