Two killed, four injured in German nightclub shooting
BERLIN: A gunman opened fire at a packed nightclub in southern Germany yesterday morning, killing one and wounding four before being shot by police, authorities said.
The 34-year-old man, identified as an Iraqi national, "was critically injured in a shoot-out with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital," police said in a statement.
Authorities ruled out a terrorist attack.
"We're not assuming that this is an act of terrorist violence," police spokesman Fritz Bezikofer told rolling news channel NTV.
"The events in the disco and all the links are somewhat clearer and they actually rule out a terror background," he said, adding that the gunman was not an asylum seeker and had been living in Germany for some time.
Another police source said he could have been motivated by personal relationship issues.
Officers received emergency calls from terrified clubbers around 4.30am local time as the man began shooting in the nightclub heaving with "several hundred" people, said police.
One person was killed on the spot and three others seriously wounded in the club called "Grey", in an industrial zone in the city of Constance.
Shortly after the gunman left the building, he was shot by police. One officer was also injured in the exchange of fire.
Terrified clubbers had either fled the building or found a place to hide, police said, adding that the danger was over.
JAM-PACKED
A witness told national news agency DPA that the attacker was shooting randomly at clubbers around him.
"The club was jam-packed," added the unnamed man, who said he had seen the attacker.
The shooting came just two days after Germany was shaken by a knife attack in the northern city of Hamburg.
A 26-year-old Palestinian had killed one and injured six in an assault at a supermarket. He was a known Islamist with psychological problems and investigators say his motives remain unclear. - AFP
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