The police have thus far refused to release his identity.
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Two men initially suspected as accomplices in the shooting who had left the scene in a auto were later interviewed and cleared, police said. 16 remain hospitalised, police say. Those casualties include “many children”, CNN says. “The exchange, recorded on two different camera phones, captured an intense conversation that ends in gunfire”, CNN writes.
“The perpetrator was an 18-year-old German-Iranian from Munich”, police chief Hubertus Andrae told reporters after the massacre Friday that left 10 people dead including the gunman. Dpa reports that the attacker was a fan of computer games and had apparently glorified the teenager responsible the 2009 Willenden school shooting in southwestern Germany, where a gunman killed 15 people. Security restrictions in the city have been lifted and public transport is operating as normal, Beck said. It is unknown if any of the attackers are among the dead.
Andrae said the suspect’s body was found about 2 1/2 hours after the attack, which started shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) at a McDonald’s restaurant across the street from the mall.
In the U.S., President Barack Obama pledged to provide Germany with whatever help it might need to investigate the mall shooting. But, then the shooter was believed to have staged the attack alone.
At an address on Dachauer Strasse that was searched by police early Saturday, a neighbor described the suspect as “very quiet”.
A police patrol had shot and wounded the gunman but he managed to escape, he said. Police are continuing to warn residents to stay indoors and away from public places. Three were seriously hurt, Andrae said. The victims were reportedly tortured before their death. Armed policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016.
Nine people were killed on Saturday when a gunman opened fire in a Munich mall.
While police initially called the mall shooting an act of terrorism, they said they had “no indication” it involved Islamic extremism and at least one witness said he heard a shooter shout an anti-foreigner slur. German police told the BBC that they believed they were dealing with multiple attackers.
People offered space to the stranded people in their own homes on social media, using the hashtag #Offenetuer, which means “open door”, for people who are stranded without a way to get home, BBC reported.
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Germany’s Interior Ministry said Munich police had set up a hotline for concerned citizens. Public transportation has been shut down following the shooting.
