Police shoot dead masked man who took hostages in German cinema

A masked man took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday before police stormed the complex and shot him dead, police said.

No other people were injured, a police spokesman said.
 
The attacker, who carried a rifle or "long gun", acted alone and appeared to have been a "disturbed man", the interior minister of Hesse state, Peter Beuth, told the regional parliament.
 
Police had not identified the man or established his motive, spokesman Bernd Hochstaedter said, adding that nothing immediately pointed to his having a militant background.
 

German special police leave their cars in this still image taken from video after a masked man with a gun and ammunition belt opened fire in a cinema complex in the small western town of Viernheim, near Frankfurt, Germany, June 23, 2016, injuring several people and barricaded himself inside the building. Reuters

German television showed pictures of heavily-armed police, wearing helmets and body armour, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim, south of Frankfurt, and a couple fleeing the building.

Cinema employee Guri Blakaj told Reuters the gunman, who appeared to be aged between 18 and 25 and was about 1.7 metres tall, entered the cinema at around 3 p.m. and told workers to get into an office.

He then went into a cinema theatre. Blakaj, who said there were about six workers and 30 cinemagoers in the building, then heard shots fired.

Police special forces stormed the building and shot the gunman.

There was still heavy police presence at the scene into the late afternoon, and a helicopter circled overhead.