German gunman kills six at Hamburg Jehovah’s Witnesses hall

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — A gunman stormed a service at his former Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Hamburg, killing six people before taking his own life after police arrived, authorities in the German port city said Friday.

Police gave no motive for Thursday night's attack, which stunned the country's second-biggest city. But they acknowledged recently receiving an anonymous tip that claimed the man showed anger toward religious groups and might be psychologically unfit to own a gun.

An unborn baby was among the dead, but police didn't say whether the mother was also killed. Eight people were wounded, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the death toll could rise.

Officers apparently reached the hall while the attack was ongoing — and heard one more shot after they arrived, according to witnesses and authorities. They did not fire their weapons, but officials said their intervention likely prevented further loss of life.

Scholz, a former Hamburg mayor, lamented the “terrible incident in my home city.”

“We are speechless in view of this violence,” Scholz said at an event in Munich. “We are mourning those whose lives were taken so brutally.”

All of the victims were German citizens apart from two wounded women, one with Ugandan citizenship and one with Ukrainian.

Officials said the gunman was a 35-year-old German national identified only as Philipp F, in line with the country's privacy rules. Police said the suspect had left the congregation “voluntarily, but apparently not on good terms,” about a year and a half ago.

The man legally owned a semi-automatic Heckler & Koch Pistole P30 pistol, according to police. He fired more than 100 shots during the attack — and the head of the Hamburg prosecutors office, Ralf Peter Anders, said hundreds more rounds were found in a search of the man's apartment.

Hamburg police chief Ralf Martin Meyer said the man was visited by police after they received an anonymous tip in January, claiming he “bore particular anger toward religious believers, in particular toward Jehovah's Witnesses and his former employer.”

Officers said the man was cooperative and found no grounds to take away his weapon, according to Meyer.

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