Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘deeply saddened’ by German ‘attack on members’

The Jehovah’s Witnesses community in Germany has expressed deep sadness over a “horrific” deadly shooting in Hamburg that it said targeted its members.

Seven people were killed during a mass shooting on Thursday at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in the German city of Hamburg in what the country’s leader denounced a “brutal act of violence.”

“Eight people are dead – including the alleged perpetrator,” Hamburg police said in their latest statement. “Other people were injured in the incident, some seriously.”

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany said in a statement: “The religious community is deeply saddened by the horrific attack on its members at the Kingdom Hall in Hamburg after a religious service.”

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The slayings in the northern German city occurred around 9 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) with police initially unsure how many shooters might be involved.

But later updates from the city’s police force suggested there was just one attacker, who may have died at the scene.

“At present, we believe there is one perpetrator,” Hamburg police said in their latest update on their Twitter account, hours after armed officers scoured the scene for evidence and suspects.

A police spokesperson earlier said that authorities were investigating whether the shooter was among the several people found dead at the scene.

After being called to the building, police saw dead and injured people on the bottom floor where an event was taking place, Hamburg police spokesman Holger Vehren told NTV.

Officers also heard a shot on the top floor of the building when they first entered it and found a dead person upstairs.

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Police believe it may have been the shooter but said no further information could be given at this point, a spokesperson said.

In February 2020, a gunman with suspected far-right links shot dead nine people, including people from Turkey, in the western town of Hanau before killing himself and his mother.

In October 2019, a gunman killed two people when he opened fire outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

Among the deadliest attacks was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people. The Tunisian attacker, a failed asylum seeker, was a supporter of ISIL (ISIS).