Four Dead As Lawyer Opens Fire In Hospital
12:24pm Monday September 20, 2010
Alex Watts
Four people, including a five-year-old boy, have been killed after a woman opened fire in a hospital in Germany.
Four Dead As Lawyer Opens Fire In Hospital
The 41-year-old lawyer - who has not been named - was shot dead by police in a hail of bullets. A child was among the dead, and at least three other people were injured during the incident at the St Elisabeth Hospital in the town of Lorrach, Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The area is not far from last year's Winnenden massacre when a teenage gunman killed 15 people with his father's gun before taking his own life. The bloodshed began at 6pm on Sunday when there was a loud explosion in a building opposite the hospital. The gunwoman was seen running from the burning building - which houses her legal practice. She ran into the hospital, and fired at staff and patients.
Officers said two people were killed inside the hospital and a police officer was seriously wounded in the exchange of fire. The bodies of a man and a five-year-old boy were found in the building opposite. They are believed to be the woman's estranged partner and son. The motive for the attack is not yet known. It is thought they were killed before the explosion, and the woman set fire to the building using an accelerant and gas canister.
"Inside the hospital, the woman killed a staff member and then opened fire at police as they arrived," a police spokesman said. "In the subsequent exchange of fire, a police officer was seriously injured and the woman was killed." The male nurse was shot several times in the head, and was also repeatedly stabbed. Germany has been debating tougher gun laws since the Winnenden shooting.
