Seven shot dead at German Jehovah’s Witness centre in Hamburg’s Deelboge Street in the Gros Borstel district

At least seven people have been shot dead and several more injured after a shocking church shooting in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday night.

According to Hamburg police, the shooting took place at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses centre on Deelboge Street in the Gros Borstel district, and a large-scale operation was underway in the Alsterdorf area.

Witnesses said one or more people entered the church before opening fire on the churchgoers in a brutal rampage.

Police were called to the scene about 9pm on Thursday to find several people seriously injured and some dead.

“Then they heard a shot from above, they went upstairs and found one further person,” the police representative said.

Germany’s DPA news agency, citing a reporter on the scene, said local residents in the northern Alsterdorf district of Hamburg had received warnings on their mobile phones of a “life-threatening situation” and that streets had been sealed off.

Television footage showed dozens of police cars and fire engines blocking off streets and some people, wrapped in blankets, being led by emergency service workers into a bus.

“We heard shots,” one unnamed witness told reporters.

“There were 12 continuous shots ... then we saw how people were taken away in black bags.”

Police revealed they had found a “lifeless person…who we believe could be a perpetrator”.

It is unclear whether more than one shooter was responsible for the attack after initial reports suggested the perpetrators of the attack were on the run.

Investigations were ongoing to determine whether further perpetrators were at large.

Ambulances are at the scene and German police are searching for the attackers, local media report.

“So far, there is no reliable information on the motive for the crime,” Hamburg police tweeted.

“We ask that you do not share unsecured assumptions and/or spread rumours.

“Our measures and investigations are running at full speed. As soon as there is reliable information about the use in #GroßBorstel, we will inform you immediately at this point.”

Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher took to Twitter to deplore the “shocking” shooting.

“My deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” he wrote.

“The emergency services are working flat out to track down the perpetrator (s) and to clarify the background.”

With wires