This is the terrifying moment when a gunman fired bullets through the window of a Jehovah’s Witness church in Hamburg last night in a shooting that killed eight people and seriously injured others.
Phillip F., 35, a former member of the religious community, is said to have been responsible for the deadly attack, which also injured several other people, some seriously, according to the German tabloid Bild.
In grainy footage, shot from a distance, the man appears to walk up to a window of the church and fire several shots at the ‘Kingdom Hall’ building from what is believed to be a gun – before charging inside .
The news outlet reported that Phillip F. was an employee of a business center. Police said earlier that the perpetrator was found among the dead after armed officers stormed into the church last night. Officials have said he acted alone.
The victims attended a Bible study meeting at the Jehovah’s Witnesses church that began at 7:00 PM local time. According to reports, the attack began two hours later, at 9 p.m., and police responded about 15 minutes later.
Phillip F., 35, (pictured) a former member of the religious community, is believed to have been responsible for the deadly attack that also injured several other people, some seriously, according to German tabloid Bild
Footage (pictured) has surfaced of the gunman firing bullets through the window of the church. The grainy video shot from a distance appears to show the man walking to a window of the church and firing several shots at the building from what is believed to be a gun
The video showed that the suspect was standing by a window and holding an object in front of him from which flashes could be seen. The video, obtained by MailOnline, also includes the sound of shots being fired through built-up areas.
In one of several bursts of gunfire, 15 continuous shots can be heard as the alleged gunman deliberately fires into the building.
The footage was shot at night from dozens of feet away — across a road and a parking lot — so that the man disappears from view when he appears to be entering the building.
“We heard shots,” an unknown witness told reporters. “There were 12 consecutive shots,” he said. ‘Then we saw people being taken away in black bags.’ The footage suggests that far more than 12 shots were fired by the gunman.
A large distress call quickly descended on the building. Later footage showed armed police officers storming the church and making their way upstairs pointing their guns into a stairwell.
The first officers found several lifeless bodies and seriously injured people at the scene, the police said. Officers heard a gunshot in the “upper part of the building” before finding a body in the area where it sounded, they added.
Officers have “indications that a perpetrator may have been in the building and may even be among the dead,” police said in a statement Friday morning.
Hamburg police were due to provide an update at a press conference around noon, but said they were still working to determine the motive for the attack.
According to the German magazine Spiegel, the suspect was a former member of the congregation who had gathered on Thursday for a Bible study meeting in the center of the GroßBorstel district.
Citing his website, Bild said that Phillip F. grew up in Kempten in the Allgäu region in a strict religious family. After leaving high school, he trained as a bank clerk, it said.
He settled in Hamburg after studying business administration and having lived abroad a number of times. On his website, he says he is “multicultural” and “a self-declared European,” the tabloid added.
Germany has been shaken by several attacks in recent years, by both jihadists and far-right extremists.
One of the deadliest attacks by Islamist extremists was a truck disaster at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.
The Tunisian attacker, a rejected asylum seeker, was a supporter of the Islamic State jihadist group.
Europe’s most populous country remains a target for jihadist groups, particularly because of its participation in the anti-Islamic state coalition in Iraq and Syria.
In the photo: armed German police officers storm the church on Thursday evening
Pictured: People are evacuated from the church after shots fired at the building last night
Between 2013 and 2021, according to data from the Interior Ministry, the number of Islamists considered dangerous in the country has multiplied by five to 615.
But Germany has also been hit by several far-right attacks in recent years, prompting accusations that the government was not doing enough to stamp out neo-Nazi violence, or groups plotting attacks.
In February 2020, a far-right extremist shot dead 10 people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau.
And in 2019, two people were killed after a neo-Nazi tried to storm a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow…
.