Update: Police found that the attacker, who shot himself, was an 18-year-old German-Iranian.
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Police in Munich reportedly said they expect “multiple dead” after a shooting spree inside a city shopping center, prompting a massive police response and an intense manhunt for possible suspects.
Munich police are urging residents to stay home or seek safety indoors as they hunt for a shooter or shooters who attacked people at a mall.
► At 5.50pm Munich police received reports of shots fired on Hanauer Street, near the Olympia Shopping Center in the Moosach district, northwest of the city center.
Policemen arrive at a shopping centre in which a shooting was reported in Munich, southern Germany, Friday, July 22, 2016.
The mayhem began in a branch of McDonald’s at around 5.50pm where the teenage killer opened fire on people before going outside and continuing to fire on terrified passers-by.
However, a police spokesman in the Bavarian capital had said earlier that terrorism was suspected, without revealing any immediate indications of an Islamist link. More than 2,000 officers, including the federal police, were mobilized to respond. “The man who appears to be a shooter said insulting things about Turks, did not espouse jihadist ideology and spoke with a German accent”.
Authorities evacuated the main train station in the city of some 1.4 million, while metro and bus transport services were suspended in the wake of the assault, but have since resumed. “The situation is still unclear”, they said on Twitter.
The Czech Republic has said their 500 mile border will be reinforced in case the attackers try to flee the country, German broadcaster NTV reports.
Austria said it had “significantly” tightened security measures in states sharing a border with Germany and put its elite Cobra police force on high alert.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teenager probably acted alone.
Germany has so far escaped the kind of large-scale jihadist attacks seen in France.
At least 16 people, including several children, were in hospital and three were in critical condition, Andrae said.
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Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway.
