Mass shooter had ‘extremist motive’

Suspect, found dead after killing nine in two shisha bars, reportedly expressed far-right views in written confession

HANAU: A suspected right-wing extremist shot nine people dead in two shisha bars in an overnight rampage through a German city before, police believe, returning home and killing himself.

Federal prosecutors said they had taken charge of investigations into the attack, which happened late on Wednesday in Hanau, east of Frankfurt, due to indications it had an extremist motive.

“Based on what we know now, there was definitely a xenophobic motive,” Hesse state Interior Minister Peter Beuth said after a press briefing yesterday.

The 42-year-old alleged shooter was found dead in his flat along with the body of his 72year-old mother, said Beuth.

Beuth said the attacks on shisha bars and a vehicle left nine other people dead and one seriously injured. Multiple injuries were also reported. The attacker reportedly entered the bars and began killing people execution-style.

Many of the victims were of foreign descent, according to sources in law enforcement. However, it is not clear if any of them were foreign nationals.

Turkish citizens were among those killed, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding to worries that the shooter singled out his victims based on race and ethnicity.

German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said it was “shocking how many people were senselessly killed”.

Beuth said it is believed the suspect worked alone. It is also believed he killed himself and his mother. The weapon used in the killings was found next to the suspect’s body.

At some point, the suspect posted a nearly one-hour video online in which he said that Germany was being run by a secret agency with wide-ranging powers.

Newspaper Bild said the suspect had expressed far-right views in a written confession. He also made negative statements about migrants from Arab countries and Turkey.

Police said the two crime scenes were at Heumarkt, in the centre of Hanau, and KurtSchumacher-Platz in the western neighbourhood of Kesselstadt, some 2km away.

Beuth said the suspect was in legal possession of arms and was a sports marksman, and Bild said ammunition and gun magazines were found in the suspect’s vehicle.

Beuth added authorities made use of surveillance cameras to identify the car and the residence of the car’s owner.

Hanau is about 20km east of Frankfurt and has a population of around 10,000.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted a message of support to those in the town.

“Thoughts this morning are with the people of Hanau, in the centre of which a despicable crime was committed,” he wrote.

The town’s mayor, Claus Kaminsky, said it was “an evening that you can hardly imagine being any worse”.

“It was a terrible evening, that will surely occupy us for a long, long time and stay with us in sad memories,” he said in comments to an online broadcast from Bild newspaper.

Katja Leikert, a parliamentarian for the Hanau constituency, said on Twitter that it was a “true horror scenario for us all”.

The shock spilled across Europe, with messages of condolence coming in from the European Union and Italy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a German native, tweeted that “I am deeply shocked by the tragedy that took place last night in Hanau”. – Agencies