Suspect, one other found dead after nine people killed in Germany shootings

Police gave no details of the suspected gunman but said “there are currently no indications of further perpetrators

February 20, 2020 11:35 am | Updated December 03, 2021 07:09 am IST - Hanau, Germany

Forensics experts investigate at the scene after a shooting in central Hanau, Germany on February 20.

Forensics experts investigate at the scene after a shooting in central Hanau, Germany on February 20.

A gunman suspected of shooting at least nine people dead at two shisha bars in Germany was found dead at his home. Officers also found another body at the same address, police said.

Police gave no details of the suspected gunman but said “there are currently no indications of further perpetrators.” They did not give details of his possible motive or how he died, or specify why they believe “with a high degree of probability” that he was the assailant.

 

The number of dead in the shootings Wednesday evening rose to nine, a police statement said.

Officers sealed off and searched the apartment in Hanau’s Kesselstadt district, near the scene of one of the shootings, after following up witness statements on a getaway car. Police said work to confirm the identities of the two bodies at the home was still underway, and they couldn’t immediately give details either on them or the identities of the victims of the earlier shootings.

Earlier on Thursday, police said that eight people were killed and around five wounded. They said a dark vehicle was seen leaving the location of the first attack and another shooting was reported at a scene about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) away.

Police officers swarmed central Hanau, cordoning off the area of one of the shootings as a helicopter hovered overhead. A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen, with shattered glass next to it. Forensic experts collected evidence.

“This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness,” Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky told the Bild newspaper. Lawmaker Katja Leikert, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party who represents Hanau in the German parliament, tweeted that it was “a real horror scenario for us all.”

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