At least eight people were killed Wednesday night in two shootings in Hanau, near Frankfurt (central Germany), and police "launched a large-scale manhunt" to find the perpetrator (s). The shootings allegedly targeted hookah bars and left at least five seriously injured, according to local media. "At this stage, the police can only confirm that eight people have been fatally injured," the authorities said in a statement.
A large police force has been deployed in this city, located about twenty kilometers from Frankfurt (Hesse), according to the same source. An AFP journalist on the spot saw around thirty police cars leaving the Hanau police station and, according to witnesses, heavily armed police were deployed in the city.
"Horror scenario"
A first shooting would have targeted a hookah bar, the Midnight, in the heart of this city of about 90,000 inhabitants. According to the police, at least one person was seriously injured at this first site around 10 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT). Witnesses, quoted by local media, reported hearing a dozen shots. The author (s) then left this first site by car in the direction of Kurt-Schumacher Platz, in the district of Kesselstadt, according to the police.
A second shooting then took place, which left "at least five seriously injured" according to the authorities' initial assessment. According to local media, three people were killed in front of the first hookah bar and five in front of the second, L'Arena Bar. The gunman reportedly rang the doorbell of the second bar and shot people in the smoking area, killing five people including a woman, reports Bild, adding that the victims were of Kurdish origin.
"The victims are people we have known for years," said the bar manager's son, quoted by the DPA news agency. Two employees were among the victims, according to this witness, absent like his father at the time of the shooting. "It's a shock to everyone."
"It is a real horror scenario," deplored the Conservative member for the riding, Katja Leikert. The social democratic mayor of Hanau, Claus Kaminsky, spoke to him of a "terrible evening, which will certainly haunt us for a very, very long time. He asked to avoid any" speculation "and called on the inhabitants to" be careful ".
The motive for attacks not yet known
The motive for the attacks was not yet known, said a police spokesman. Germany has been targeted in recent years by several jihadist attacks, one of which killed 12 people in the heart of Berlin in December 2016. But it is the threat of far-right terrorism that most worries the German authorities. , especially since the murder of a pro-migrant German elected member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party last June.
On Friday, 12 members of a far-right group were arrested as part of a massive counterterrorism investigation. They are suspected of having planned large-scale attacks on mosques on the model of the author of the attack on Christchurch in New Zealand, who in March 2019 had killed 51 people in two mosques by filming themselves live. They were taken into custody. The attacks were aimed at triggering "conditions close to civil war" and undermining social order, according to security sources quoted by the DPA agency.
In October, a right-wing extremist Holocaust denier had attempted to carry out an attack in a synagogue in Halle, a massacre being only barely avoided. Unable to enter the religious building in which the faithful had barricaded themselves, he had shot a passerby and the client of a kebab restaurant, broadcasting his packages live on the internet. His trial is expected soon.
In Dresden, in the former GDR, eight neo-Nazis have also been on trial for almost five months for planning attacks against foreigners and politicians. The association Ditib, the main organization of the Turkish Muslim community in Germany, called for more protection for its faithful who "no longer feel safe".