Six killed in shooting at German youth welfare center

At least six people have been killed in a shooting in the northern German city of Stade, the police have said.

“Shots were fired near a youth welfare center in the city center,” a police official told Germany’s dpa news agency.

Four women and two men are among the victims, Kathrin Schuol, a spokeswoman for the local police department told a press conference on Monday evening, adding that all of them were either employees of the facility or officials from the local child services department.

Several people have been injured in the incident, according to law enforcement officials. Five people died on the spot and one person succumbed to their injuries in the hospital, police said.

Police are treating the incident as a homicide at a residential facility providing temporary supervised accommodation for expectant mothers and young women with children, dpa reported, citing a police spokeswoman. According to law enforcement officials, the shots were fired inside the facility.

Loud screams were heard from the facility shortly before the shooting, German magazine Focus reported, citing a witness. The man, who lives nearby, told the outlet he saw a woman and a young man trying to flee the scene by car. According to the witness, police opened fire after the pair ignored officers’ orders to stop.

A total of three people were arrested in connection to the incident, according to the police.

The suspected perpetrator was identified as a 45-year-old German national of Turkish descent. According to Schuol, he lives near Hannover and has no connection to Stade. The suspect was previously known to police but had no record of violent crimes.

He did not have a firearms permit, and it remains unclear where he obtained the weapon found on him when he was arrested, Schuol said.

Two other people in police custody are women. One of them was behind the wheel of a Mercedes in which the suspected gunman allegedly attempted to flee the scene. According to Schuol, she has “a close connection to the [alleged] perpetrator’s family.”

The second woman is the mother of a three-month-old child who was at the facility during the incident. According to Schuol, a child custody dispute was the likely motive behind the attack. The woman and her child were unharmed, police said.