8 killed, including shooter, at Jehovah’s Witness hall in Hamburg, Germany

HAMBURG, Germany — Eight people, including the alleged gunman, died after shots were fired inside a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday, authorities said.

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According to the BBC, the shooting took place in the Gross Borstel district in Germany’s second-largest city.

Update 2:32 a.m. EST March 10: According to police in Hamburg, eight people, including the alleged gunman, were killed in the shooting, The Associated Press and The Washington Post reported.

Police listed the figure on their website, according to the AP.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is a former mayor of Hamburg, called the shooting “a brutal act of violence.”

Original report: German media reports, which did not name sources, put the number of people killed at six or seven, The Associated Press reported.

A person believed to be the gunman may be among the several people found dead, CNN reported, citing Hamburg’s police department.

“All we know is that several people died here and that several people have been injured and have been brought to hospitals,” said Holger Vehren, a Hamburg police spokesperson, according to The New York Times.

According to The Washington Post, the victims “all have gunshot wounds,” a police spokesman told Northern German Broadcasting.

Police responded to the building at about 9:15 p.m. local time, the newspaper reported. Police arriving at the scene found several people dead and others wounded and heard a final shot in an upper floor of the building.

However, police did not find an active shooter, the Times reported.

Vehren said he had no information about the extent of the injuries suffered by people wounded at the scene, according to the AP.

Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher tweeted about the shooting, calling it “shocking,” CNN reported.

Hamburg police said in a tweet that the investigation was “running at full speed,” according to The Guardian.

“As soon as there is reliable information about the use in #GroßBorstel, we will inform you immediately at this point,” police tweeted.

Gross Borstel is a mixed commercial and residential neighborhood located between the city’s downtown area and its airport, the Times reported.