The alleged perpetrator of the shooting at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ center in Hamburg, northern Germany, which killed seven people, committed suicide after police arrived, local authorities said Friday, ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
The shooter fled to the first floor [do edifício onde os membros da comunidade estavam reunidos numa sessão de oração] and committed suicide,” Hamburg Interior Minister Andy Grote said, adding that a woman seven months pregnant was among the victims.
On the other hand, the police added that the alleged shooter was a former member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, with whom he appeared to be in conflict.
“But there are no signs of a terrorist context,” a representative of the German prosecutor’s office said at a press conference.
Police said they were alerted to the shooting on Thursday at 21:15 (20:15 in Lisbon) and that when they arrived at the scene they heard a gunshot on the top floor of the building.
A police spokesman told reporters that there was “evidence that the perpetrator of the attack” could be in the building, “perhaps even among the dead.”
Intervention forces “entered the building very quickly and found dead and seriously injured people there,” explained the spokesman, who did not name a possible motive for the shooting.
According to the Bild daily newspaper, the shooting sparked a “bloodbath” that left at least seven people dead and eight seriously injured.
The German news agency DPA reported that rescuers removed 18 people, who were uninjured, from a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The city of Hamburg said the shooting took place in the Gross-Borstel district in northern Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a modern three-story building.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already lamented the “cruel act of violence”, stressing that his thoughts are with the victims and their families.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faezer also reacted on Twitter, saying she was “shocked by the horrendous act of violence.”
The Jehovah’s Witness community also said it was “deeply saddened” by the attack.
“The religious community is deeply saddened by the terrible death of its members. […] in Hamburg,” the statement posted on the website reads.
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschencher expressed solidarity with those affected following the news, which he found shocking, in a tweet.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are part of an international church founded in the United States in the 19th century and headquartered in Warwick, New York with about 8.7 million members worldwide, of which about 170,000 are in Germany.
In recent years, the German authorities have been on high alert in the face of the dual terrorist threat posed by Islamic and right-wing extremism.
Germany has been the target of attacks by Islamic extremist movements, including a truck attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) that killed 12 people in Berlin in December 2016, the deadliest of its kind committed in Germany.
The Germans continue to be a target for Islamic extremist groups, in particular due to the country’s participation in the anti-IS coalition in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
From 2013 to the end of 2021, the number of Muslims considered dangerous in Germany has increased five-fold to 615, the German Interior Ministry said.
Following a warning from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), German authorities on January 8 announced the arrest of two Iranians suspected of preparing a chemical attack using ricin and cyanide.
Another threat comes from the far right after several deadly attacks in recent years on religious communities or installations in the country.
In a racist attack in Hanau, near Frankfurt (west), in February 2020, a German involved in a conspiracy killed nine young people of foreign origin.
Between 2000 and 2007, a neo-Nazi group called the NSU had already killed nine migrants and a policeman. Two of the members committed suicide before being arrested, while the third was sentenced to life in prison.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal

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