German police are engaged in a huge anti-terror manhunt in the city of Munich after six people died in a shopping mall shooting. Police confirmed six deaths at the Olympia mall and several wounded.
The attackers are still on the run. Witnesses said they had seen three with guns. Police urged people to avoid public places.
Shop workers are still in the mall, in the north-western Moosach district. Public transport has been suspended.
Police are now describing it as “an acute terror situation”. They say the first reports of a shooting in Hanauer Street came in just before 18:00 (16:00 GMT).
The Bavarian capital’s central railway station has been evacuated.
People stranded by the emergency and unable to get home are being offered shelter by locals. The initiative was launched with the Twitter hashtag #Offenetür (open door).
Police helicopters are flying over the city and special forces are involved in the massive police deployment.
Bavarian public radio reports that an elite border security unit, GSG9, is heading for Munich with several helicopters.
Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer is holding a crisis meeting with security advisers.
Meanwhile the neighbouring Czech Republic is boosting its border security.
German security forces have been on alert since a teenage migrant stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday, in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State.
The authorities had warned of the danger of further incidents.
A man working at a petrol station in Munich told the BBC: “We see just ambulances and it’s like firemen and police but all this area is evacuated, all the streets.
“Now [there] are no cars just on the side of the streets. All of the streets are blocked. I see that the people are scared. Everybody are running around.”
Munich police said they did not know where “the perpetrators” were. “Look after yourselves and avoid public places”.
Source BBC
