Five dead, including a Turk, in Germany
KARLSRUHE
Police forces are deployed in Karlsruhe. Police say they found five dead bodies in the apartment after storming it when they smelled something burning. Hürriyet photo
A gunman killed four hostages, including a Turk, in southwestern Germany yesterday before presumably shooting himself while resisting eviction from his apartment building, police said.Police said they found five dead bodies in the apartment in the city of Karlsruhe after storming it when they smelled something burning, about three hours after the hostage-taking began. Authorities initially spoke of three or four dead but said they discovered the body of a fifth victim, a woman, presumed to be the owner of the flat, during a search, a spokesman said.
According to daily Hürriyet, Mustafa Güler, 33, a locksmith, was among the four people who were killed during the shooting. He reportedly went to the building with a bailiff and the owner of the house to carry out the eviction order. The man opened fire when the bailiff and the others went to his apartment to eject him for failing to pay his rent, and then multiple shots were filed, killing one person.
About 200 police officers were sent to the scene including around 40 members of elite police units, and the area was sealed off. The justice minister of Baden-Württenberg state, Rainer Stickelberger, said he was “deeply distressed,” Agence France-Presse reported. “We must do everything we can to shed light on the terrible crime as quickly as possible,” he said.
German gun laws were tightened after two school massacres in the eastern city of Erfurt in April 2002 and in the southwestern town of Winnenden in March 2009, both of which were also carried out with legal weapons.
