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Frankfurt (AFP) – A 21-year-old shooter opened fire on Thursday at a secondary school in northern Germany, seriously injuring a female employee before being arrested, police said.
The incident took place at the Lloyd Gymnasium in the port town of Bremerhaven.
Investigators were still in the dark about possible motives, but prosecutor Oliver Constin said initial findings suggested that “certain psychological tendencies may have contributed to the crime.” I said that I am
School shootings are relatively rare in Germany, which has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe.
But a series of recent incidents has rattled the country.
Bremerhaven police said the suspect entered the school building shortly after 09:00 (0700 GMT) and opened fire on a “seriously injured” female employee.
An alarm was quickly raised and police took the suspect into immediate custody and confiscated his weapon.
The injured woman is being treated in hospital.
Constien said investigators were trying to determine if the shooter was related to the victim.
Videos circulating on social media and German news sites appear to capture the moment the suspect was arrested.
A man in black is seen lying face down on a street corner, handcuffed by police with his weapon next to him.
However, there was no immediate confirmation of reports that the alleged weapon was a crossbow.
Local media reported that police rushed to the scene after a female student called the police from the school bathroom after hearing gunshots and a massive deployment of police and rescue teams.
According to the report, teachers and students barricaded their classrooms in accordance with the protocol.
By 14:00, police said special forces had completed a search of the premises and the last people had left the building.
Students and staff were receiving psychological counseling, they added.
Michael Frost, head of Bremerhaven’s schools department, told reporters that only about 140 people were in the schoolyard on Thursday, instead of the usual 550, due to exams, excursions and external classes. .
snapchat tips
In a separate incident on Thursday, police in the eastern city of Leipzig, still attending middle school, were tipped off on Snapchat that they posted images of themselves with guns in their classrooms and made unspecified threats. A 21-year-old boy was interrogated.
However, Leipzig police said the video turned out to be part of a school project and that the suspect only possessed an airsoft gun, a non-lethal firearm that shoots plastic pellets.
Last week, investigators in the city of Essen said they thwarted a bomb attack on a school after arresting a 16-year-old boy suspected of planning a “Nazi terrorist attack”.
In January, an 18-year-old student opened fire in an auditorium at the University of Heidelberg in southwestern Germany, killing a young woman and wounding three others before fleeing the scene and pointing a weapon at herself.
In 2009, a former student was shot in Vinnenden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, killing nine students, three teachers and three passers-by. The shooter then committed suicide.
In 2002, a 19-year-old former student shot dead 16 people at a school in Erfurt, central Germany. He also committed suicide afterwards.
The Winnenden and Erfurt massacres were carried out using legal weapons, prompting Germany to tighten gun control.
The country now requires anyone under the age of 25 to pass a psychiatric exam before they can apply for a gun license.
© 2022 AFP
