Gunmen kill 6 at Munich mall

At least six people are believed to have been killed in a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday, a police source said.

Three armed assailants were involved in the shooting, said a police spokesman citing witnesses. He was unable to officially confirm the death toll. Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many were hiding inside.

A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded.

“We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” the spokeswoman said. No one had been arrested, she added.

“We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 pm, the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping centre. There are still people in theshopping centre. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them.”

Police special forces had arrived at the scene.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich. “All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive,”

“We have no further information, we’re just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet.”

Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines. The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the1972 Olympic Games.