Associated Press reported:Police say a man has been shot dead after entering a movie theater in southwestern Germany, apparently with a weapon. They say they believe that no one else was injured in the incident.
Police spokesman Bernd Hochstaedter said authorities were told early Thursday afternoon that an armed man had entered the Kinopolis movie theater in the town of Viernheim and that shots apparently had been fired.
He said: “We believe that there were no injured people, and that the people who were in the cinema with the perpetrator could be freed uninjured.”
Hesse’s interior minister, Peter Beuth, said it wasn’t clear whether the weapon was real. Hochstaedter said that the police deployment lasted around three hours.
Independent reported: The man was killed after police stormed the cinema complex, according to the interior minister of the state of Hesse.An armed man who entered a cinema in Germany has been shot dead, according to local media reports.The man was reported to have entered the cinema wearing a mask and carrying arms, before taking hostages. He was shot during the police operation that followed, according Germany’s interior ministry.Police stormed the complex soon after reports of a heavily-armed man had taken hostage inside the cinema complex in Viernheim, according to local reports that cited the German interior minister of the state of Hesse. Though previous reports had said that 20-50 people had been wounded when the gunman opened fire, it isn’t clear whether or not the man actually used any of the weapons he stormed the cinema with. Local reports also suggested that all other injuries had been sustained during the police operation, when officers used tear gas.
Reuters: German cinema gunman dead
A gunman who reportedly opened fire in a cinema complex in the western German town of Viernheim has been shot dead after police stormed the complex, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported on Thursday, citing the interior minister of the state of Hesse.
Earlier, Focus Online magazine reported that German police had arrested the gunman.
Police were not immediately available to comment.
Germany’s Bild newspaper said the gunman entered the complex in Viernheim, south of Frankfurt, at 3pm this afternoon.
Wearing a disguise and armed with a gun and cartridge belt, the shooter fired several shots into the air before apparently shooting at crowds of cinema-goers who were gathered in the multiplex.
Dozens of “screaming” bystanders fled the complex with reports of between 20 and 50 injured, though the exact number of casualties has not yet been confirmed.
The shooter’s motive remains unclear, with speculation it was a botched robbery or terror attack.GETTY
German police said there was an “unclear threat situation” and the area has been cordoned off, with the attacker believed to barricaded himself inside the cinema complex.
An elite squad of armed German police have been dispatched by helicopter and car, reports said.
Daily Mirror said: A masked man has opened fire in a cinema complex injuring up to 50 people in western Germany, according to reports.
It is thought that the gunman entered the cinema shortly after 3pm local time holding a weapon.
Special forces have been dispatched to the scene at the Kinopolis in Viernheim near Frankfurt.
There are unconfirmed reports the man is armed with multiple weapons and has taken hostages.
Source: Daily Mirror, 23 June 2016