Police investigator Robert Heimberger told a police press conference in Munich that it appeared the gunman had hacked a Facebook account and lured people to the shopping centre with an offer of free food.
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Around 2,300 police in Germany and neighboring Austria were called on to response to the rampage, which happened less than a week after a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker wounded five people in an ax-and-knife rampage that started on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg.
In a press conference this morning, police said there is no evidence the gunman had links to Islamic State.
The public transport system was shut down and the main train station evacuated, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
“Our consulate in Munich has established with the German police and the families that the three young [ethnic] Albanians [from Kosovo] lost their lives during the attack”, the ministry said in a statement.
Combined with the deadly attack in the French city of Nice, she says people are growing increasingly concerned. Andrae said police believe the video is genuine.
Following a police search of the attacker’s room, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae all but ruled out an Islamist link in the killings. The motive for the violence is not clear yet.
MUNICH police say they do not know where the attacker or attackers are and have repeated the warning for people to avoid public places.
Munich prosecutors said Saturday that the shooter in the attack – named in the media as 18-year-old Iranian-German national Ali Sonboly, the son of a taxi driver – had been in psychiatric care and treated for depression.
The shooting spree began before 1600 GMT at a McDonald’s restaurant and continued on a nearby street before the gunmen moved into the OEZ shopping centre, a police spokeswoman said. German police told the BBC that they believed they were dealing with multiple attackers.
As the evening wore on, with still no perpetrator to be found, police asked eye witnesses to upload any images and footage they had of the incident to the police website.
There were reports of people barricading themselves in shops in the shopping centre as the attack unfolded and Munich was put into lockdown. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, was due to hold a crisis meeting of her ministers at mid-day in Berlin.
The shooter was finally found dead about a kilometre away after committing suicide. “Our city stands united”, he said.
Munich police say the man who killed himself may be the only gunman.
Police will also have to find out how the 18-year-old got the firearm used in the attack in a country whose gun control system is described by the U.S. Congress Library as being “among the most stringent in Europe”. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.
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The third attack on civilians in Europe in just over a week sent panicked shoppers fleeing the mall in Germany’s third largest city as elite police launched a massive operation to track down what had initially been thought to be up to three assailants.
