The attacker killed seven people and committed suicide shortly after police stormed the building. / Photo: AFP
The alleged perpetrator of the shooting recorded Thursday at a church in Jehovah’s Witnesses from the German city of Hamburg, whose final number of victims including the attacker is eight, was a former member of that community, with which he was in conflict, the German Police said on Friday.
“Philipp F. was a former member” of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a senior police officer told the press, adding that the attacker left the community about 18 months ago, “apparently not on good terms,” according to the AFP news agency.
the attacker killed seven people and committed suicide shortly after the police broke into the building, the authorities also indicated when reporting the details of what happened last night.
“The author fled to the first floor” of the building where members of the community were gathered for prayers, “and killed himself,” Interior Minister of the city-state of Hamburg, Andy Grote, told reporters.
Armed with a revolver, he killed four men and two women aged 33 and 60, one of them seven months pregnantand whose baby is counted as a fatality, the authorities specified.
Eight people were injured, four of them seriously.
Among the victims was a seven-month pregnant woman / Photo: AFP
The motives for the attack are still unknown.
The rapid arrival of the security forces that interrupted the massacre, allowed avoid a higher death tollthe authorities assured.
The motives for the attack carried out by the 35-year-old suspect are still unknown, a representative of the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office said, adding that “There are no indications of a terrorist context.”
The attacker could have suffered from psychiatric disorders.
The man, who had no criminal record, “felt a rage against members of religious congregations, particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses,” police explained.
