Hamburg church shooter believed dead as German police probe motive
Hamburg police are continuing an investigation to understand the motive behind the deadly shooting that killed seven people and seriously injured many others at Jehovah's Witnesses church.
The gunman is believed to be a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses community, according to local media.
German police have been searching for a motive after a gunman killed several people in a Jehovah's Witnesses church in Hamburg.
Shooting has left eight people dead, including the suspected gunman, police said on Friday.
"Eight people were fatally injured, apparently including the suspected perpetrator," Hamburg police said in a statement, adding that several other people were injured in Thursday's attack, "some seriously".
"Investigations into the motives behind the crime are continuing."
The gunman is believed to be a former member of their community, Spiegel magazine reported.
"Bad news from Hamburg," Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on Twitter early on Friday, calling the attack "a brutal act of violence".
He said his thoughts were with the victims, their families and the security forces, who he said "have been through a difficult deployment" since the shooting at around 9 pm local time.
UPDATE: Death toll from shooting at Jehovah's Witness church in Hamburg rises to at least eight, including shooter, who was a former member – police pic.twitter.com/V7b3HfrX6f
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'Horrific attack'
The Jehovah's Witnesses said in a statement on their website that the religious community was "deeply affected by the horrific attack on its members of the faith in a Kingdom Hall in Hamburg after a service".
The group expressed sympathy for the victims, families "and the traumatised eyewitnesses". Ministers were "doing their best to support them in this difficult hour. We pray for all those affected and wish them the power of the God of all comfort".
Soon after the violence began, residents in the Alsterdorf district received warnings on their mobile phones of a "life-threatening situation" and the area was sealed off, the DPA news agency reported.
"We heard shots," one unidentified witness told reporters.
"There were 12 continuous shots," he said. "Then we saw how people were taken away in black bags."
Police arrived at the scene to find several people seriously wounded and some dead.
"Then they heard a shot from above, they went upstairs and found one further person," said a police spokesperson.
READ MORE: Several dead in shooting in German city of Hamburg
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