At least seven people died and eight were injured for a shooting in a church of Hamburg, in the Alsterdorf neighborhood. Local police intervened at the scene tonight around 9:00 p.m. local time.
“A major police intervention is taking place at the moment in Alsterdorf”, a neighborhood in the north of the city, the Hamburg police (northwest) confirmed on Twitter.
The security forces spread the alarm and asked residents to stay in their homes because the danger still continues, a police spokesperson confirmed to ANSA.
The police reported that the shots occurred during a Jehovah’s Witness ceremony.
“There are no indications that there are people on the run”added the police spokesman in an official statement issued in Hamburg after the massacre.
“When the police were alerted, we intervened very quickly because, in addition, we were close to the scene of the incident. When we arrived at the church, the agents even heard a shot,” the spokesperson explained.
“On the top floor of the building a person who is not excluded was intercepted, may be the person responsible or one of the responsible parties. But that is not yet clear,” she said, adding that verifications are ongoing.
The Bild newspaper mentions a “blood bath” and affirms that the events occurred “in a church of Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
Although the motives for the attack are still unknown, in recent years Germany has been the victim of bloody shootings, most of them carried out by jihadists, in particular an attack on a vehicle claimed by the group Islamic State that caused 12 deaths in December 2016 in Berlin. This jihadist attack is the bloodiest committed in Germany.
Germany continues to be a target of jihadist groups, in particular because of its participation in the coalition that fights the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and in which it deployed in Afghanistan after 2001.
From 2013 to the end of 2021, the number of Islamists considered dangerous present in Germany It increased fivefold and is currently 615, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The number of Salafists is estimated at 11,000, or twice as many as in 2013.
Following a warning from the FBI, the German authorities had announced on January 8 the arrest of two Iranians suspected of having wanted to commit an “Islamist” chemical attack.
Source: Ambito
