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Friday, July 22, 2016

'Several dead and wounded' in Munich mall shooting




23 Juillet 2016, 01:21 | Jean-Luc Gavreau


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Germany's interior minister cut short his holiday in the United States to go back to Berlin late Friday to meet with security officials.

Police escort people who leave the Olympia mall in Munich after shots were fired.

A worker of a restaurant across the street from the shopping center said by phone that the police had called and asked for the doors to be locked. Police have set up a hotline for people who are missing relatives and are sending out tweets on safety suggestions in four languages -German, English, French, Turkish.

As the manhunt continued, Munich police pleaded via Twitter that people not share images of police activity.

"This is one of the biggest challenges that the Munich police have faced in recent years", he said, adding that the police were treating the attack as terrorism.

The three attackers were still at large, fleeing in the direction of a nearby metro station, media reports said.

The Munich assault was also reminiscent of Islamist militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 and on a hotel in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.

CNN said police also reported a second possible shooting incident in another part of the town. A police manhunt is underway.

Obama told his audience the shooting is yet another reminder that people's way of life, their freedom and ability to go about their everyday business depends on law enforcement.

Members of Germany's elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the deadly shooting at a mall in Munich.

The police said the first call, which came in at 5:53 p.m. local time, came from the McDonald's restaurant near the mall.

No one is in custody yet.

At least six people are believed to have been killed in a shooting rampage in a Munich shopping centre today, a police source said, and three armed suspects are at large.

One shooter is believed to be among the dead.

The New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit tweeted that it was "monitoring events unfolding in Munich".

Munich hospitals activated an emergency alert, meaning "all on-duty staff stand ready until the number of injured is clear", said a spokesman for Staedtisches Klinikum Muenchen-Schwabing, near the shopping center.


How many people are dead?The first reports came at 6 pm, the shooting apparently began at a McDonald's in the shopping centre.

The whole city's public transport system has been shut down and its main railway station has been evacuated. Major roads in the Bavarian city were largely empty as special police teams swarmed the area and helicopters carrying snipers swept over rooftops looking for as many as three perpetrators carrying long guns. "Please avoid public places".

Police are now warning people to avoid the area.

A shooting at a shopping mall in Munich has left at least six people dead and multiple people injured, the Munich police say.

The shooter, or shooters, remained on the run, forcing authorities to shut down traffic and rail services in the Bavarian city.

Dpa is quoting Munich police as saying no one has been captured yet. Die Welt has reported that the police are aware of these posts, and do believe there are "several" shooters.




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