At least eight people were killed in two shootings on Wednesday evening February 19 in Hanau, east of Frankfurt in Germany, announced a police spokesperson. The perpetrator or perpetrators of these shootings are on the run, added the police, who "launched a large-scale manhunt".

The attacks targeted two downtown shisha bars, according to local media. A large police force has been deployed in this city, located about twenty kilometers from Frankfurt (Hesse), the authorities said in a statement.

A first shooting hit the Midnight, a shisha bar located in the heart of this city of approximately 90,000 inhabitants. Police say at least one person was seriously injured at the first site at around 10 p.m. 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 reports, three people were killed in front of the first hookah bar and five in front of the second, the Arena Bar.

The threat of far-right terrorism

The motive for the attacks was not yet known, said a police spokesman.

Germany has been targeted in recent years by several jihadist attacks, but it is the threat of far-right terrorism that worries the German authorities the most, notably since the murder of a pro-migrant German elected member. from Chancellor Angela Merkel's party last June.

On Friday, twelve members of a far-right group were arrested as part of a large counterterrorism investigation. They are believed to have planned large-scale attacks on Christchurch-style mosques. They were taken into custody.

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.

With AFP and Reuters

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