The “Bild” newspaper speaks of a “bloodbath” at a rally of this cult movement on Thursday evening, in which seven people died and eight were injured. The shooter could be among the victims.
Neither the exact toll nor the circumstances of the crime are known exactly. This Friday morning, the German police are investigating the shooting in which several people were killed and seriously injured in a Jehovah’s Witnesses center in Hamburg (North) on Thursday evening. Several media, including the daily newspaper Bild, which spoke of a “bloodbath”, claimed that the shooting left 7 dead and 8 seriously injured. However, the Hamburg police did not give any figures. “The police measures taken in the area are gradually being suspended. Investigations into the crime are ongoing,” she tweeted on Friday.
After a shot was fired in the “upper part” of the building where the killing took place, police discovered the body of “a dead man,” a police spokesman said, adding that it “could possibly” be one or more of the perpetrators Shoot-out. “We have no indication (report) of (any) attacker fleeing,” he said. “At this point in time, it is believed that there was only one shooter,” police said Twitter.
In the night, shortly after 3 a.m. local time, the Federal Office for Civil Protection canceled the official danger alarm that had been triggered in the event of an attack in order to prevent residents from leaving their houses.
According to the Hamburger Abendblatt, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been attending a weekly meeting dedicated to Bible study since 7 p.m. Police “were called around 9:15 p.m. to fire at the” three-story building in the Groß Borstel district north of Germany’s second largest city, a police spokesman told NTV.
The intervention forces “broke into the building very quickly and found dead and seriously injured people there,” said this spokesman. Inside, the officials also heard a shot “from the upper part of the building” and found another person, the spokesman continued, emphasizing by cell phone that “we are not yet able to provide any information”.
Founded in the United States in the 19th century, Jehovah’s Witnesses consider themselves heirs to early Christianity and refer constantly and exclusively to the Bible. The status of the organization varies from country to country: they are considered equivalent to the “major” religions in Austria and Germany, which according to the Witnesses website have around 175,000 members of this denomination, including 3,800 in Hamburg. In France, many of its chapters have “cult association” status, and this rigorous movement is regularly accused of sectarian aberrations.
double threat
While the reason for the shooting is unknown at this time, German authorities have remained vigilant in recent years in the face of a dual terrorist threat, jihadism and right-wing extremism.
Germany has been the victim of jihadist attacks, most notably a ramming ram attack in Berlin alleged by the Islamic State group that killed 12 people in December 2016. This jihadist attack is the deadliest ever perpetrated on German soil. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the number of Islamists classified as dangerous in Germany has increased fivefold since 2013 and by the end of 2021 to currently 615. The Salafists are estimated at around 11,000, twice as many as in 2013.
Another threat looms over Germany, embodied by the extreme right, after several deadly attacks in recent years targeting community or religious sites. In the racist attack in Hanau near Frankfurt (West) in February 2020, a German involved in the conspiracy movement killed nine young people of foreign origin. In 2019, on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, an extremist attempted to carry out slaughter in a synagogue in Halle. He had been unable to enter the place of worship but killed two bystanders before being arrested.
To update : Friday, March 10 at 7:20 am, with more detail on facts and context.