Five killed in German youth welfare centre shooting, two detained

Five people were shot and killed in a town in northern Germany on Monday, and police said they had detained two individuals, including the suspected shooter.

The motive for the incident in Stade, close to the port city of Hamburg, was not immediately clear, a police spokesperson said.

The role of the second individual in custody remains unclear, a second police spokesperson told Reuters, adding that no other suspects were at large.

It is unclear how many people were injured, he said, adding that the dead were all adults.

Police believe the incident occurred at a youth welfare facility in Stade, a town of nearly 50,000 people to the west of Hamburg. After the incident, police warned residents to steer clear of the area.

Mass shootings are relatively rare in Germany, especially when compared to the United States, but it has seen a spate of high-profile cases.

In 2023, a gunman in Hamburg shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah’s Witness worship hall. In 2016, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man who was obsessed with mass killings killed at least nine people in Munich.