Gunman shot dead at cinema in western Germany

June 23, 2016 at 13:59

German police shot dead a gunman after he took hostages at a cinema complex in the western town of Viernheim on Thursday, the interior minister of Hesse state said.

Hesse state Interior Minister Peter Beuth said special police forces shot dead the gunman, who was armed with a rifle or “long gun”, after storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim.

German television showed pictures of heavily armed police, wearing helmets and body armour, entering the building as a couple fled the scene.

Beuth said that no one else appeared to have been injured in the nearly three-hour standoff, contradicting earlier media reports which claimed there had been dozens of casualties.

"We believe that there were no injured people, and that the people who were in the cinema with the perpetrator could be freed uninjured," he said.

Beuth did not immediately identify the suspect, but said he appeared to have been a “disturbed man”.

A police spokeswoman also confirmed that the gunman had been killed in the police operation and that there were no other casualties.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS)