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MUNICH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- "Do not come in! Gunman inside!" were the words a witness recalled of a shooting that killed at least nine people on Friday night at a shopping mall in Munich, who said he would never forget the horrific scene.
The man told Xinhua reporters that he and his family just walked out of the store seconds before the gunman shot. As soon as he heard gunshots inside, he and his family ran towards their car. "I can not imagine what would happen if we left a little bit late."
On Friday, the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, once being considered one of the safest city in Germany, experienced a nightmare.
An 18-year-old German-Iranian man from Munich, whose motive was "completely unclear," killed nine innocent people in the crowded Olympia Shopping Center. Sixteen people were injured, including several children, among them three serious.
The pistol-wielding attacker, identified by Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae as a dual national, was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
The incident took place four days after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker assaulted passengers on a German train with an axe, injuring four Hong Kong residents, two in critical condition, and a local resident. Bavarian police shot the teenager dead while he tried to attack the police.
At the scene and adjacent areas, Xinhua reporters saw police cars, ambulances and special vehicles on the scene. The police have cordoned off the shopping mall and the adjacent areas within 1 km. Helicopters were hovering overhead.
According to reports, hundreds of policemen and troops from the city police, federal police and anti-terrorist unit of the German federal police had been deployed to the scene.
Chinese Consulate-General in Munich said there was no reports of Chinese nationals being injured or killed so far, but the consulate issued an emergency safety warning soon after the attack broke.
The gunman acted alone, police said. Two men initially suspected as being accomplices after leaving the scene in a car were interviewed and cleared.
The local police chief said there were no immediate similarities between Friday's attack and the incident on the train near the southern German city of Wuerzburg.
