INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Shooting At Munich Shopping Mall, Armed Gunmen Feared To Be On The Loose

By Soumashree Sarkar
Published on: 05:33 PST, Jul 22, 2016

A shooting at a Munich shopping mall has been reported.

The police have been deployed to the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in the city of Munich in Germany, but armed gunmen — the perpetrator of the attacks — are feared to be still at large. In the image above, armed police move past onlooking media in response to reports of the shooting.

According to German broadcaster NTV, at least three people are dead while 10 others have been injured. The number has been corroborated by the Bavarian Interior Ministry, according to Reuters. However, recent media reports suggest that the number of people dead may have risen to six.

While there is still no clarity on the number of shooters (some police sources have revealed that they are dealing with two or three armed gunmen), it is fairly certain that their location is not yet known, and that they are on the run. Locals have been advised to stay indoors and on high alert.

The Munich shopping mall became the latest in this year’s series of terror attacks when at 6 p.m. local time, the police received reports of a lone gunman firing in the premises.

The shooting apparently began at the McDonald’s restaurant inside the mall. The gunmen then proceeded to shoot in several other locations within the mall.

According to CNN, police spokeswoman Claudia Kvenzel announced that the shooting is now “over,” even though the gunmen have not been apprehended yet.

No other information has been provided on the casualties or the number of people injured.

Police officers search the area near the Stachus square after a second shooting was reported there. [Photo by Marc Kleine-Kleffman/AP Images]
According to tweets emerging from locals, Munich police have advised people not to leave their homes and to stay away from the Olympia shopping mall.

A Reuters report of a German newspaper, Muencher Abendzeitung, puts the number of casualties between 10 and 15.

TV images streamed by local channels, according to Reuters, showed dozens of emergency vehicles outside the shopping mall.

With reports of more than one active shooter emerging, people in and around the shopping mall are naturally in a state of disarray — something that is apparent from the videos being uploaded on social media, from the site.

The shooting at the Munich shopping mall took place amidst high alert following a 17-year-old immigrant asylum-seeker unleashing a brutal rampage with an axe on a family from Hong Kong, while traveling on a train in Bavaria.

The Guardian reported a phone conversation that an employee of the shopping mall has had with Reuters. The employee, who along with his colleagues, are still hiding, refused to give out his name, but shed light on the situation.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot. All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive. We have no further information, we’re just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet.”

Russia Today shared the Instagram video update [shared below] of a person present at the scene, which shows helicopters descending on the shopping mall area where the shooting took place.

According to RT, police fear that they may be dealing not just with isolated gunshots but with a “shooting rampage.”

Reports of a second shooting at Stachus and a third shooting at Isartor — near the city’s center — have started pouring in through social media updates of people tuning into local news coverage in Munich.

Two violent attacks in the same week in Germany have opened the floodgates to questions over Angela Merkel’s policies.

However, in the case of the shooting at the Munich shopping mall, as in every other situation involving terror attacks, support and unflinching help have been pouring in from all avenues, with locals using the hashtag #offentür or “open door” to signify that their houses are available for refuge.

[Photo by AP Images]

Share this article: Shooting At Munich Shopping Mall, Armed Gunmen Feared To Be On The Loose
More from Inquisitr