Some German media reported that the injuries were from police tear gas and that the assailant had carried a weapon loaded with blank cartridges. “There was an acute threat situation”, Viernheim police said in a statement.
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Despite initial reports that up to 25 people had been hurt in the mayhem, Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the state of Hesse, said he had no information that anyone had been harmed.
No other people were injured, a police spokesman said.
Officers ‘successively entered the cinema and were able to locate the man and the people he was holding, ‘ she said.
The attacker died and the motive of the attack is not known yet, said the reports.
Police said they won’t release any more details until the operation is over. The incident happened on a hot summer afternoon and the cinema appears to have been relatively empty at the time.
Security sources quoted by DPA news agency said there was “no link to terrorism”, after deadly attacks in cities including Paris, Brussels and Istanbul have left European authorities on edge.
“The caller heard four shots and said that the masked man appeared a little mentally unstable”.
A gunman who took hostages in a cinema in the small western Germany town of Viernheim was shot dead by police.
Earlier: There has been a shooting at a German cinema.
The masked man fled into the movie complex, operated by Kinopolis Management Multiplex GmbH, with eyewitnesses reporting shots fired into the air, according to media reports.
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Reports say that several people have been injured and a gunman has barricaded himself inside.
