Six killed, suspect detained following shooting in Germany

Suspect’s parents among the dead with authorities treating incident as ‘family drama’

A policeman secures the area close to a house where a gunman launched an assault on January 24th in the town of Rot am See in southwestern Germany. Photograph: Marijan Murat/DPA/AFP/Germany Out via Getty
A policeman secures the area close to a house where a gunman launched an assault on January 24th in the town of Rot am See in southwestern Germany. Photograph: Marijan Murat/DPA/AFP/Germany Out via Getty

Six people have been killed and another two wounded in a shooting in Germany that appears to have resulted from a family dispute, police said.

A man called police shortly after 11.45am Irish time and told them he had killed several people in the south-western town of Rot am See, regional police chief Reiner Moeller said.

Police kept the man on the line and, when they arrived at the scene several minutes later, arrested a 26-year-old German national as the suspect in the killings, Mr Moeller said.

Officers found the bodies of six people – three women and three men – in and behind a building where a bar is located.

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Rot am See, where the incident took place on Friday, is located about 170km north west of Munich. Map: Datawrapper
Rot am See, where the incident took place on Friday, is located about 170km north west of Munich. Map: Datawrapper

The suspect’s mother and father were among the dead, the police chief said.

Another two people were hurt and one of them has life-threatening injuries, Mr Moeller said.

The suspect also threatened two children, aged 12 and 14.

He had a licence to own firearms as a shooting club member, Mr Moeller said.

The police chief said the motive is not known but authorities are treating it as a “family drama”.

Rot am See is located about 170km north west of Munich. It is a town of some 5,300 people in a rural area. – AP