Woman opens fire in deadly German hospital attack
A woman opened fire at a flat and in a German hospital on Sunday night, killing at least three, including one child, and wounding several patients before police shot her dead.
By Allan Hall in Berlin
Published: 7:53PM BST 20 Sep 2010
The woman, who was not identified, shot a woman and a child in a flat in the south-western town of Lorrach in Baden-Wuerttemberg. According to the local Badische Zeitung newspaper, there was a "loud explosion" around 6.00pm local time in a building opposite the hospital. Online photographs showed smoke pouring from the building as firemen raced to the scene.
But the fire brigade personnel were initially unable to tackle the blaze as they heard shots and took cover. Media reports said two bodies were later found in the burned-out apartment and police were on Sunday investigating whether the hospital shooter was responsible. "We were playing with the children in the garden when there was a huge explosion that shook the house," said Ayed Centinier, who lives in the apartment block next door.
The woman, who was not identified, then moved through wards at the hospital, shooting at staff and patients with a handgun. She shot dead a male nurse before hitting a policeman, who was at the hospital on a private matter. He was in critical condition last night. It was as she opened fire on police who stormed the hospital after staff rang the emergency number that officers returned shots and she was killed.
There was no immediate indication about a motive, nor whether the woman was a patient at the hospital. The Catholic hospital has a centre for children, a specialist gynaecological unit and an intensive care station for premature babies as well as a psychiatric unit for troubled youngsters. Lorrach, close to the French and Swiss borders, is a city of 48,000 people. It is not far from the site of the Winnenden massacre in March last year, when German teen Tim Kretschmer killed 15 people with his father's handgun before taking his own life.
