Five people were killed and several others injured in a mass shooting in the northern German city of Stade on Monday.
The suspected gunman and a second alleged perpetrator have been arrested, a police spokesperson told news agency AFP. According to police, shots were fired near a youth facility, and they are currently conducting a large-scale operation outside the town centre. “We ask you to leave the area and give it a wide berth for your own safety,” police said in an X post.
“Homicides involving multiple victims occurred at a youth welfare facility. Five people were fatally injured and additional individuals sustained injuries,” AFP quoted the city police.
Stade, which is located west of Hamburg, has a population of around 50,000 people.
Germany has more restrictive gun laws than those in the US, and mass shootings are less frequent. Anyone under the age of 25 needs to pass a psychiatric exam before applying for a gun licence.
One of the most recent mass shooting in Germany was in March 2023, when a disgruntled former Jehovah’s Witness member shot dead six people from the Christian group’s congregation in Hamburg, before turning the gun on himself
