Volkswacht Bodensee - Five shot dead at German youth welfare site, two suspects arrested

Police in bulletproof vests and several ambulances were seen at the cordoned-off site in the northern city of Stade, west of Hamburg, in the wake of the gun rampage.

"Homicides involving multiple victims occurred at a youth welfare facility" in the city, police said about the shooting at a centre also believed to house mother-and-child residential groups.

"Five people were fatally injured and additional individuals sustained injuries," police said.

The suspected gunman and a second alleged perpetrator were arrested, police said, adding that there was no longer any danger to the public.

Both suspects arrested were aged over 21, Spiegel Online reported, and the five people shot dead were also all adults, media reports said.

N24 television cited witnesses as saying that police deployed to the building after an emergency call and spotted two suspects who were attempting to flee in a car.

Police then opened fire and brought the vehicle to a halt before arresting the two, according to the report.

As news emerged of the shooting, police confirmed that a major operation was under way in Stade, a city of about 50,000 people on the Elbe river, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Hamburg.

Images in local media showed a large contingent of police and ambulances gathered on a cobble-stoned street while two helicopters hovered overhead.

"We ask you to leave the area and give it a wide berth for your own safety," police said in an earlier post on X.

The shootings took place near a day-care centre and a primary school, said city councillor Carsten Brokelmann, adding that no one there was hurt.

"We are relieved that our staff and the children at the daycare centre and primary school are safe, and I would like to thank the police officers for their efforts in this chaotic situation," he said in an online statement.

"At the same time, our deepest sympathies go out to the victims of this terrible act and their families."

Germany has some of Europe's strictest gun laws -- they require anyone under 25 to pass a psychiatric exam before applying for a gun licence -- and mass shootings are relatively rare.

But they occur from time to time, and Monday's was among the deadliest in recent times.

In February 2020, a far-right extremist shot dead nine people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau.

In March 2023 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.

In May 2022 a 21-year-old gunman opened fire at a secondary school in northern Germany, badly injuring a female member of staff before being arrested.

H.Gerber--VB