Police: Gunman among 10 dead in terror attack at mall
image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2016/07/munich.png
People stand outside a Munich shopping center after it was evacuated.
A gunman shouting “Allahu Akbar” burst out of a bathroom at a McDonald’s restaurant and opened fire on children before rampaging through a nearby shopping mall.
Ten are now confirmed dead, including the gunman, following the “shooting spree” at the shopping center in Munich, Germany.
Munich police believe the gunman killed himself and “probably” acted alone, calming earlier fears there were three shooters on the loose.
Video posted to social media appear to show the gunman dressed in black outside the restaurant and firing into the crowd.
“I come out of the toilet and I hear like an alarm, boom, boom, boom,” a witness named Loretta told CNN. “I saw the shooting of children, who were sitting down to eat. They could not run.”
Loretta, who noted she is a Muslim, said she distinctly heard the man shout, “Allahu Akbar.”
In another video posted on social media, a man driving by in a car can be heard calling the gunman an “ass—-,” and yelling at the suspect to “put your gun down.”
“I am a German!” the gunman shouts back before firing more rounds.
According to a witness, a man also entered the shopping mall and began firing at random. The shooter then reportedly left the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum center and walked toward a railway station.
Other witnesses reported seeing at least three gunmen.
“We are at the moment after three attackers. We have about 100 people on site, and we are trying to evacuate people from the site. Our priority is to catch the attackers at this stage,” said Police Chief Marcus Dagloria Martins.
The city was on lockdown, and authorities warned people to stay home or seek protection.
A woman who works in the mall said she heard “several shots.”
“People started running. I went outside as well, more people running outside,” Lynn Stein told CNN. “I think I heard more shots. Then it sounded like he went to the parking house next to the mall, several shots there.”
In a video posted online, people can be seen running out of the building to seek shelter.
Thamina Stoll, a university student in Munich, tweeted video of the scene.
“At least 30 police cars on their way to #Munich #shoppingmall according to local radio station. Area around mall blocked by police,” she wrote.
Germany’s Muencher Abendzeitung is reporting that up to 15 people have been killed.
image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2016/07/Munich.png
A photo posted on Twitter shows a man lying on the ground covered with a bloody blanket.
The shooting comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an ax and a knife on a regional train in Germany, as WND reported.
The teen was shot dead by police, who happened to be nearby, but not before several people were seriously injured. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Telegraph carried a Reuters report that Islamic State terror organization supporters were celebrating on social media.
“Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men,” read one tweet in Arabic on an account that regularly favors the radical Islamist movement, the report said.
Said another, “The Islamic State is expanding in Europe.”
The Mail also noted the Munich shopping center shooting happened exactly five years after “far-right activist Anders Breivik” shot and killed dozens of people on a Norwegian island.
It was July 22, 2011, when Breivik exploded a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people. He then drove to the island of Utoya where he gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth summer camp.
The report also noted the 1972 massacre in Munich involving the Israeli Olympic team.
On Sept. 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September took the athletes hostage. The ordeal went on for 20 hours before snipers started shooting at the hostage-takers at the airport. Five of the terrorists and all 11 of the Israeli hostages were killed in the firefight.
Copyright 2016 WND
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