GERMAN AUTHORITIES SAY GUNMAN HARBORED ‘RAGE’

Weeks before a gunman opened fire on his former congregation at a Jehovah’s Witness hall in northern Germany, authorities got a tip that he “harbored a special rage” toward religious groups, officials said Friday. But when they checked on him, they said, they determined they did not have grounds to seize his weapons.

The gunman killed six people, including a pregnant woman, before turning his weapon on himself as police stormed the building in Hamburg on Thursday in what authorities called “the worst such mass shooting incident of this dimension” to affect the city. Eight people were wounded, four of them severely.

In keeping with German privacy laws, the police identified the gunman only as Philipp F., a 35-year-old German who, according to authorities, had been a member of the congregation until a year and a half ago “but apparently did not leave on good terms,” said Thomas Radszuweit, the head of state security in Hamburg.

Mass shootings are extremely rare in Germany, where regulations limit who can own a weapon and make training and testing compulsory.

In January, authorities received a letter saying that Philipp F. “harbored a special rage against members of religious groups, especially the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Radszuweit said.

Several weeks later, authorities sent a team to Philipp F.’s home to inspect whether he was properly securing his weapons and ammunition.

They said that he had been open and cooperative and, with the exception of one stray bullet outside the safe, that everything was in order. They gave him a warning.