BERLIN (AP) — A shooting at a youth welfare facility in northern Germany on Monday left six people dead in what officials believe may been a custody dispute. The suspected shooter was arrested.
Five people – four women and one man – died at the scene of the shooting in Stade, police said. A sixth, also an adult, died later at a hospital. All six were employees of the youth center or its affiliates, they said.
"The police are investigating the motive and the exact course of events under high pressure," Daniela Behrens, interior minister for the Lower Saxony region, told a news conference, adding that it was an extremely violent crime in cold blood, “apparently in a custody dispute.”
Police said several people were wounded, some of them seriously, German news agency dpa reported, but they did not give a specific figure or information on the victims’ identity.
Police said the shooting took place in the facility on Dankersstrasse, a street south of the town center. The facility includes temporary accommodation for pregnant women or young mothers with children.
A main suspect was arrested, while another two people were subject to “police measures” on suspicion of involvement, police said in a statement. They didn't elaborate.
Video footage after the shooting showed a large police presence, along with other emergency service personnel and several ambulances on a residential street.
Germany’s gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States, and mass shootings are rare but not unheard of.
Vitali Mertens, who lives across the street from the scene, said he heard gunshots and “the whole area was cordoned off right away.”
Stade has about 50,000 inhabitants and is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Hamburg.
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