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Hanau: 'Several dead' in mass shooting in Germany
[BBC] Several people are dead following a shooting in the western German city of Hanau, local media report.Eight people were killed and five others injured when an unknown attacker opened fire on a shisha bar in the centre of the city. There are also reports of a second shooting at another shisha bar, in a different part of Hanau. Officials say the suspects fled the scene and are currently at large, Bild newspaper reported I am posting this mainly in the hope that EC can keep us updated.
There appeared to be no other perpetrators, they added, and said the investigation was ongoing. The motive for the attack is unclear. Bild newspaper reported that the suspect was a German citizen with a firearms licence, and that ammunition and gun magazines had been found in his car. The first shooting was at a bar in the city centre, while the second was in Hanau's Kesselstadt neighbourhood. They sparked a seven-hour manhunt, while officers searched for what they thought could have been multiple gunmen. The suspect killed three people at the first shisha bar, Midnight, before driving to the Arena Bar & Cafe and shooting dead another five victims, regional broadcaster Hessenschau reported. The initial death toll was eight, but this was raised to nine in the early hours of the following morning after one of the wounded victims succumbed to their injuries.
Speaking to DW’s Rebecca Staudenmaier in Hanau, 49-year-old Ali Mengucek recounted the events before the shootings. Mengucek, who has lived in the area for the last 40 years, said he was walking home with his two children when he saw four men ‐ "all quite tall and fairly young," perhaps 40 or under. He said they were standing in groups of two, about 30 meters apart . He walked in between them, telling his two girls to pick up the pace. "I live about 50 meters past where they were standing. When I got home and shut the door, then I heard the six shots. I believe this was six or seven minutes after I had walked past with my two little children. I then opened the window, people were running back and forth and screaming. Within about five minutes, police were on the scene," Mengucek said. About two hours later he spotted ammunition on the road and reported it to the police. Hanau is a city of 100,000 inhabitants in the state of Hesse, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Frankfurt.
Posted by: Matt 2020-02-20 |
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