Munich
police are hunting for a possible three gunmen who they believe have
carried out an attack at a shopping centre and McDonalds restaurant. On
Twitter, the local forces said shootings had taken place
at Hanauer street, which is the location of both the Olympia shopping
center and the adjoining McDonalds.
Reports of the
gunman’s behaviour were confused and contradictory. A Muslim woman told
CNN that she heard the gunman yell: “Allahu
Akbar,” yet video footage showed a gunman ranting against foreigners and
Turks, suggesting a Neo Nazi attack.
Children were said to be targeted.
Police described the attacks simply as terrorism, and said the gunman or gunmen are believed to still be in the city.
Lynn Stein, who works inside the Olympia centre, told CNN a woman
told her “masked gunmen dressed in black” had been seen running through
the centre.
Germany’s Muencher Abendzeitung reported that the death toll was
higher, with up to 15 people killed in the incident at the Olympia
Einkaufszentrum shopping centre.
Police told another paper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, that there were multiple deaths.
“There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre,” Munich police said on Twitter, without elaborating.
An employee inside the shopping centre told the Reuters news agency “many shots were fired”.
Germany has been on high alert after a teenage asylum seeker attacked people with an axe on a train on Monday, injuring five.