Six shot dead at German mother-and-child shelter

Six people have been shot dead at a shelter for mothers and children in northern Germany.

Police said three people were detained, including the suspected attacker, a 45-year-old German-born man of Turkish origin, who was arrested while fleeing on Monday.

Footage released by the Bild newspaper showed police surrounding and detaining two people from a car that was driving down a road with a flat tyre.

Police called the incident a homicide with multiple victims in the town of Stade near the port city of Hamburg. They did not give a motive. The Spiegel news outlet, citing information it obtained, said it was likely a personal rather than political or extremist matter.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his condolences on X.

"The news from Stade is profoundly shocking," Merz wrote on social media platform X, adding that many people "who wanted to help and protect others" had been killed or injured.

"My condolences go out to the victims and their families," he said, also thanking police officers for their rapid response.

Police had warned people to stay away from the area where the incident took place, but later said there was no danger to the general public.

German media reports initially said four women and one man had been killed. Police later said a sixth adult had died in hospital of wounds.

Footage posted by Bild showed a car with a flat right tyre slowing to a halt in a tree-lined road. Police with guns then ran towards the car and detained two people who were made to lie flat on the ground.

Police cordoned off the area near the facility in a cobbled street with red brick homes, and forensic experts in white suits and plain-clothed police were at the scene.

Mass shootings are rare in Germany. In 2023, a gunman in Hamburg shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah's Witness worship hall. In 2016, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man who was obsessed with mass killings killed at least nine people in Munich.

with dpa