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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sean Morrison

Germany shooting: Nine killed as gunman opens fire on two shisha bars in Hanau before suspect found dead

Gun attacks: Police stand guard near the scene of one of the shootings in central Hanau (Picture: AP)

Nine people were shot dead in gun attacks on two shisha bars in Germany before the suspect was found dead at his home.

A manhunt was launched after witnesses told how the gunman used a getaway car to speed off from the scene of the bloodbath in the city of Hanau on Wednesday night.

Two separate shisha bars were targeted in the city, which is near Frankfurt at about 10pm (9pm UK time).

A shisha lounge in the city centre was the first target, according to regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk.

It said witnesses reported hearing eight or nine shots and seeing at least one person lying on the ground.

Three people were killed and at least one seriously hurt. At the second site, about one and a half miles away, five people were killed, police said in an initial statement.

The suspect and another body were later found dead at the alleged gunman’s home in the early hours of Thursday.

Police officers secure the area after a shooting in Hanau (REUTERS)

"There are currently no indications of further perpetrators,” officers said.

They did not give details of his possible motive or how he died, nor did they specify why they believe that he was the assailant.

The number of people killed the shootings Wednesday evening rose to nine, a police statement said.

"This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness," Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky told the Bild newspaper.

Officers detain a man near a damaged car at the scene after a shooting in Hanau, Germany (REUTERS)

Lawmaker Katja Leikert, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right party who represents Hanau in the German parliament, tweeted that the incident was "a real horror scenario for us all."

A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen with shattered glass next to it as forensic experts in white overalls collected evidence.

There has been reports that shots were fired at passersby from a car, but this has not been confirmed.

Forensic experts outside a shisha bar after a shooting in Hanau near Frankfurt (REUTERS)

Forensic experts in white overalls collected evidence from the scene.

A short police statement gave no information on the victims other than that eight people had died.

Heavily armed police sealed off two streets in the aftermath of the attacks.

A police helicopter hovered over the city, which is 12 miles east of the financial hub Frankfurt.

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