FIVE REPORTED DEAD AFTER A SHOOTING RAMPAGE IN MUNICH SHOPPING MALL

According to our source it was reported that there was a shooting rampage in Munich shopping mall.

Public transport shut down and area sealed off by police as witnesses claim to have seen three armed men

AFPArmed police secure the Olympic shopping centre in Munich yesterday after a shooting rampage killed at least five people and wounded 10.

MUNICH // Five people were killed and more feared dead and injured after what police described as “a shooting rampage” in a busy shopping centre in Munich.

Multiple gunshots were heard in the Olympia Einkaufszentrum (Olympic shopping centre) shortly before 6pm yesterday.

Police said there was possibly more than one gunman at large while some witnesses said they saw at least three armed men. One was seen running out of the shopping centre towards the metro station. “We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” said a spokeswoman for the Munich police. “We expect multiple deaths. We believe there was more than one perpetrator.”

Within an hour of the first shots being reported, the interior ministry in Bavaria, the German state of which Munich is the capital, confirmed that three people had been killed.

Police and city officials moved swiftly to evacuate the shopping centre but many people stayed hiding inside. The city’s public transport system was shut down as police urged people to avoid public spaces and to go home and stay there.

The German national railway, Deutsche Bundesbahn, also evacuated and closed Munich’s main railway.

Armed police and specialist units quickly swarmed the area, with marksmen postioned on roofs and helicopters hover- ing overhead. Taxi drivers were advised not to pick up any fares. “We do not know where this person who is doing the shooting is. They [the police] are trying to close everything down,” Bavarian Radio reported.

It was the second attack in Bavaria, Germany’s most southerly state, in less than a week. Last Monday, a 17-year-old Af- ghan youth attacked passengers on a regional train near Wuerzburg with an axe and knife, badly wounding four people. One of them remains in a life-threatening condition in hospital. The youth attacked another woman as he fled the train before he was killed by police. ISIL claimed responsibilty for the attack. Munich police spokesman Thomas Baumann said the shooting attack in the Olympic shopping mall began at a McDonald’s restaurant in the centre .

A video purporting to show one of the gunmen running away was released on social media but police appealed to the public not to post videos or photographs online of the police operation.

Munich residents used Twit- ter to offer safe places to stay for anyone left stranded in the city because of the shootings.

The shopping centre is close to the Olympic stadium where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and executed them during the 1972 Games

A survey released yesterday showed that more than three quarters of Germans – 77 per cent – believe that their country will be targeted by terrorists in the near future.

Only 20 per cent did not believe a terrorist attack was imminent. More than half – 59 per cent – felt the authorities were doing enough to protect the public.