German media are reporting that the killer was self-styled business coach Philipp Fusz. They say that he left the congregation 18 months previously after a fall out with other members.

Police are believed to have found him dead at the scene along with at least six other people, including an unborn child as one of the victims was pregnant, it has emerged. Dozens more were injured.

On his website, Mr Fusz described himself as a business consultant who grew up in a strictly religious household in the German Alps.

He claims to have come to Hamburg as a manager in the energy sector. How reliable the claims made on his website are those is questionable.

In one section he offers consultancy for a daily fee of €250,000, stating that “The fee incorporates the fact, that my work should generate you a leverage or value added of at least €2.5m.” On the website he also offers the sale of a book titled The Truth about God, Jesus Chrsit and Satan.

Mr Fusz was on no terror watchlist and had no criminal record, according to the Bild newspaper. Among the tragic details of the crime that emerged yesterday is news that one of the victims was a pregnant woman. It is believed that both the woman and her unborn child died at the scene.

The suspect was armed with a handgun, according to a report in Der Spiegel.

He is said to have violently broken into the building during a church service attended by some 50 worshippers on Thursday evening.

Police said that they started to receive emergency calls shortly after nine in the evening alerting them to gun shots in the Alsterdorf district in the north of the city.

A Swat team that happened to be in the area arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and kicked down the door, local press reported.

The first officers to arrive at a scene of chaos with several dead bodies lying on the floor. When the officers were already inside the building they were reported to have heard a final shot.

In a room upstairs they found a further lifeless body. It is believed that this is the body of the suspected killer, although police have yet to confirm this detail.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their families. And with the security forces who have endured a difficult mission,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. ​

Germany has a community of some 200,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, one of the largest in Europe. A huge police presence was reported around the building during the night with Swat units setting up checkpoints and helicopters patrolling the skies.

Peter Tschentscher, mayor of Hamburg, said on Twitter: “My deepest sympathy goes out to the relatives of the victims. The emergency services are working at full speed to prosecute the perpetrators and to clarify the events.”

Mass shootings are still rare in Germany, although attacks on religious centres have increased in recent years.

In 2019, a heavily armed far-right fanatic attempted to break into a synagogue in the eastern town of Halle during the religious holiday of Yom Kippur. Although he was unable to break through the locked door, he shot and killed two people outside.

The deadliest gun rampage to hit the country in recent years occurred in the small town of Hanu near Frankfurt in 2020, where a far-right extremist killed eleven people. 

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