Heidelberg: 18-year-old student shoots fellow students

Created: 2022-01-24Updated: 2022-01-24 8:07 p.m

Siegfried Kollmar, President of the Mannheim Police Headquarters, speaks at a press conference.

© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa

In a lecture hall at Heidelberg University, a young man shot fellow students several times.

A woman dies, three people are injured.

The act was “cannot be surpassed in terms of tragedy”.

A young man shot a woman and injured three people in a rampage in a lecture hall at Heidelberg University.

The 18-year-old German stormed into a lecture hall with around 30 people with a gun on Monday afternoon and shot around, the police said.

The alleged perpetrator had two long guns with him, including a shotgun, said Siegfried Kollmar, police chief of the Mannheim Presidium, at a press conference in Mannheim in the evening.

What happened was “cannot be surpassed in terms of tragedy”.

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A 23-year-old woman succumbed to her injuries just a few hours after the crime.

The 18-year-old took his own life, police said.

Investigators initially gave no information on a possible motive.

It's still too early for that, said Andreas Herrgen, head of the Heidelberg public prosecutor's office.

According to earlier information from security circles, the man should not have had any political or religious motives.

It is more likely that it is a relationship act or psychological problems, it said.

The suspect - himself a student - probably announced the killing spree beforehand.

Immediately before the crime, he is said to have sent a message via Messenger Whatsapp and wrote "that people now have to be punished," reported Kollmar.

In the message he also wished for a burial at sea.

"We will still have to verify that, too, and we will also have to understand that," emphasized Kollmar.

"We will now examine his surroundings in the next few days, with high pressure." The investigators want to check all whereabouts and interlocutors of the young man in the past few days.

According to current knowledge, the young man, who lived in Mannheim, obtained the weapons abroad. Neither he nor his family should have had weapons. The 18-year-old has no criminal record, Herrgen said. The murder weapon is said to have been a shotgun. The man had more than 100 rounds of ammunition with him. It is not yet known why he stopped shooting, said Kollmar. That is speculative, but it cannot be ruled out that a specific person should be hit. The 18-year-old could have reloaded.

Because there was a backpack with unknown contents with the young man's corpse, the police were not able to reach the dead man for a long time.

It could have been explosives, Kollmar explained.

The Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office therefore also sent defusers to examine the backpack.

Kollmar reported 7 emergency calls within 43 seconds that the police received.

Officials quickly assumed it was an amok attack.

More than 400 officers were deployed.

Heidelberg's Lord Mayor Eckart Würzner (independent) expressed his condolences to the victims and their families.

"Not only were we stunned, we actually can't believe that something like this is happening here in Heidelberg." dpa