Shooter kills people at a mall on a Friday evening
Police in the German city of Munich say three gun man began a shooting attack are still on the run, and they advise people to avoid public places.
Police are saying that at least six people are dead and scores are injured.
A big security operation is under way at the Olympia shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district.
Shop workers have been unable to leave the building. There is no information about a possible motive for the attack.
The security forces have been on alert after a teenage migrant stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria on Monday in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State.
This was the third major act of violence against civilian targets to take place in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.
Munich police said they suspected it was a terrorist attack.
Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside. Munich’s main railway station was also being evacuated.
The authorities had warned of the danger of further attacks.
Munich police said on Facebook that witnesses reported three different people with weapons. Shooting was also reported on Hanauer Street and Ries Street, near the mall.
The police told people to stay in their homes or take cover in buildings. Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall. But many others were hiding inside, an employee told Reuters by telephone.
“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall.
“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.”
Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.
The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.
Update 4:37 p.m.
Update: Munich police and media reporting that at least eight people dead and still many more injured. Suspects are still at large. The Munich police are also requesting to not speculate as it could hinder them in apprehending the suspects involved.
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