Six killed in shooting at mother-and-child shelter in northern Germany

Incident occurred at a ​youth welfare facility in Stade, a town of nearly 50,000 people to the west of Hamburg

Six people were killed in a shooting at a shelter for mothers and children in northern Germany.

Police said three people were detained, including the suspected shooter, and ​that all the fatalities were adults. 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.

Members of emergency services work at the scene of what the police said was a deadly shooting in the town of Stade, Germany, June 29. — REUTERS

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 plainclothes police were at the scene.

Mass shootings are relatively rare in Germany, especially when compared to the United States, but ​it has seen a spate of high-profile cases.

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.

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