A police officer guards the road in front of a house where police found the bodies of the suspected gunman and his mother, in Hanau, Germany, on Thursday. Michael Probst/AP hide caption
Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET
At least nine people were shot and killed in western Germany late Wednesday at two different hookah lounges frequented by ethnic Kurdish customers. The suspected shooter, who was later found dead, left a letter and video claiming responsibility, according to multiple German news agencies.
The gunman reportedly opened fire at the first lounge, located downtown in the city of Hanau, killing three people; then drove to a second location about 1 ½ miles away and killed five others. Hanau is located about 20 miles east of Frankfurt.
Several other people were also injured by the gunman. Police said they did not believe there were any other perpetrators involved.
Forensic police work at a crime scene in front of a bar and hookah lounge at the Heumarkt in downtown Hanau, near Frankfurt, on Thursday. Thomas Lohnes/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Following a manhunt, police located the body of the suspect in his apartment, along with another body, at about 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET). The second body was later identified as the suspect's 72-year-old mother.
Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the state of Hesse, where Hanau is located, confirmed that the second body was the suspect's mother and also confirmed local media reports that federal authorities are investigating the shooting as likely linked to far-right extremism.
In a brief statement on the attacks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called far-right extremism "a poison" to society, according to Deutsche Welle.
"It is too early to say what the background of this incident are but we will do our utmost to explain what happened," she said.
Earlier, Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Merkel, tweeted early Thursday: "Our thoughts are with the people of #Hanau this morning, where a horrific crime was committed."
Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky, speaking to Bild newspaper, called it "a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness."
Earlier Thursday, police said that a dark-colored vehicle was seen leaving the scene of the first attack and that the vehicle was also present at the scene of the attack at the second hookah lounge.
Hookah lounges, also known as shisha bars, are places where people gather to smoke flavored tobacco from water pipes.
The attacks follow by four days another shooting that killed one person near a Turkish comedy show in Berlin. It also comes months after an attacker killed two people while trying to attack a synagogue in the city of Halle on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day.
In response to the upsurge in far-right extremism in Germany, the country's parliament, the Bundestag, approved new gun laws last month, further tightening regulations on firearms that are already among the world's most stringent.
After the bill was approved, federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the government's goal was to make sure there were "no weapons in the hands of extremists."
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said: "I do not want to wait until arms get into the hands of right-wing extremists."
NPR's Rob Schmitz in Berlin contributed to this report.
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2020-02-20 10:26:00Z
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