Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Investigations are continuing into the background to a deadly attack that targeted an event of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect in Hamburg, leaving 8 dead. The media quoted security services as saying that the "incident is isolated", and some of them mentioned that the suspect was a former member of the same sect.
For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz described the shooting incident inside a center for Jehovah's Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg as a "monstrous act."
"Several members of the Jehovah's Witnesses were victims of brutal violence last night," Schultz wrote in a tweet, adding: "My thoughts are with them and their loved ones," according to the Spanish newspaper, La Pangordia.
According to German police, the suspect is a Serbian citizen who lives in Germany with his wife and two children.
The German city of Hamburg police announced today, Friday (March 10, 2023), on its website, that eight people died in the shooting incident that took place yesterday, Thursday, in a building belonging to the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” sect in the city, and that among the dead was the “suspected perpetrator.” It does, it seems." A police spokesperson said the operation was ongoing and "everything is in flux".
Earlier, a police spokesman told reporters that the body found at the shooting site could be that of the suspect, although this has not been confirmed.
And the police in the northern German city of Hamburg canceled a warning to citizens that it had issued after the shooting incident in a place of worship belonging to the "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect. A spokesman told NTV earlier that the police assume that the perpetrator did not escape and therefore there is no more danger to citizens in the area.
Many details remain unclear, including the motive behind the crime and the nature of the event Jehovah's Witnesses were organizing at the time of the attack.
Source: agencies