Multiple dead in Jehovah's Witness hall shooting in Germany

Shots were fired inside a building used by Jehovah's Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg on March 9 evening, with several people killed and wounded, police said.

Early Friday morning, investigators could be seen working outside the building as a light snow fell, placing yellow cones on the ground and windowsills to mark evidence.

"We only know that several people died here; several people are wounded, they were taken to hospitals," police spokesperson Holger Vehren said of the shooting in the Gross Borstel district of Germany's second-biggest city.

He said he had no information on the severity of the injuries suffered by the wounded. Police did not confirm German media reports, which named no sources, of six or seven dead.

In a Twitter update in the early hours Friday, Hamburg police said they believed there was only one shooter and they were gradually rolling back security forces from the area.

"The investigation into the motive behind the crime continues," police said.

Hamburg security officials said there would be a press conference Friday afternoon to discuss details.

The scene of the shooting was the Jehovah's Witnesses' Kingdom Hall, a modern and boxy three-story building next to an auto repair shop.

Vehren said police were alerted to the shooting about 9:15 p.m. and were on the scene quickly.

He said that after officers arrived and found people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, they heard a shot from an upper floor and found a fatally wounded person upstairs who may have been a shooter. He said police did not have to use their firearms.

Vehren said there was no indication that a shooter was on the run and that it appeared likely that the perpetrator was either...

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