#Munich Attack Left 10 Persons Dead, Including 18-year-old Shooter

MUNICH, GERMANY – JULY 22: Police officers escort people with their hands raised from inside the shopping center as they respond to a shooting at the Olympia Einkaufzentrum (OEZ) at July 22, 2016 in Munich, Germany. According to reports, several people have been killed and an unknown number injured in a shooting at a shopping centre in the north-western Moosach district in Munich. Police are hunting the attacker or attackers who are thought to be still at large. 

The shooting at a Munich shopping centre was carried out by an 18-year-old German-Iranian, who apparently acted alone.

The gunman killed 9 people and reportedly committed suicide.

This incident is the third attack on civilians in Western Europe in eight days.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has ordered flags to fly at half-mast following the tragic incident.

Lowering the flags is “an expression of sympathy following the abhorrent act of violence,” the Interior Ministry said.

Authorities say they have not found any immediate evidence of an Islamist motive.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet her chief of staff Peter Altmaier, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and intelligence officials to review the incident.

She will make a statement at 1230 GMT, her office said.

The pistol-wielding attacker, identified by Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae as a dual national from Munich, was later found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Authorities said it was too early to say whether it was a terrorist attack but that the shooter was believed to have staged the attack alone, opening fire in a fast food restaurant before moving to the mall.

In addition to determining the motive, police will have to find out how the 18-year-old got the firearm used in the attack in a country whose gun control system is described by the U.S. Congress Library as being “among the most stringent in Europe”.

The gunman, whose body was found on a side street near the mall, was not identified but Andrae said he was not previously known to police.

Police commandos, armed with night vision equipment and dogs, raided an apartment in the Munich neighbourhood of Maxvorstadt early on Saturday where the German newspaper Bild said the gunman lived with his parents.

Photo Credit: Joerg Koch/Getty Images