On Thursday (Feb 20) a major manhunt was underway after at least eight people were killed and several wounded in two shootings at shisha bars in Hanau, Germany.
The attackers targeted bars in Hanau, about 20 kilometers from Frankfurt, where armed police fanned out quickly and police helicopters wandered the skies in search of those responsible for bloodshed.
One suspect, a 26-year-old man, was apprehended for alleged involvement by ‘ other unknown suspects ‘ as armed police launched a major manhunt across the area.
The very first attack took place about 10 pm on Wednesday at the Midnight bar in the city center, police and media said. Three people have been killed in front of the building with witnesses of hearing a dozen bullets, local media reported.
A gunman allegedly rang the doorbell and shot people in the smoking area killing five people including a woman, adding that the victims were of Kurdish descent.
At least five people in the attacks were also seriously injured, reports said.
After the murders, behind a police cordon, a silver Mercedes shrouded in thermal foil blankets with shattered glass behind it could be seen standing outside Midnight bar.
After the shooting, bullet casings were left dispersed across the road and a man was seen handcuffed which was most probably a suspect.
Forensic experts gathered evidence from the scene in as emergency services mobbed the area whereas two streets were sealed off by heavily armed police where ambulances rushed and a police helicopter kept on hovering over the area.
Around thirty police cars had been seen leaving the police station in Hanau and police officers with machine guns were spread across the area and Local mayor Claus Kaminsky said early today “It is a terrible evening. ‘ He urged people not to speculate over the motive”.
MP of the area Katja Leikert tweeted “On this terrible night in Hanau, I wish the families of those killed a lot of strength and condolences. ‘ She said she was ‘ shocked ‘ by the incident”.
In the last few years Germany has been struck by several terrorist attacks, one of which over December 2016 killed 12 people in the center of Berlin.
A deadly anti-Semitic gun-attack in eastern Halle on Yom Kippur’s holy day in October demonstrated the rising threat of neo-Nazi aggression. The incident, in which two people were shot dead, was streamed live.
Conservative politician Walter Luebcke, a Liberal refugee policy supporter, was fired at his home in June last year.
On Friday, police arrested 12 members of an extreme right-wing German party alleged to have been planning’ alarming’ large-scale attacks on mosques identical to those carried out last year in New Zealand.
These attacks have become a concern for German authorities.