Six fatally shot at mother-and-child centre in Germany

A 45-year-old man has been arrested in Germany after opening fire on Monday at a mother-and-baby shelter in Stade, near the port city of Hamburg.

The incident, which left six people dead, has been linked to a child custody dispute. The casualties, four women and two men, were employees at the residence.

The Lüneburg police confirmed that the suspect, a German man of Turkish origin, had an appointment ⁠at the centre, where his three-month-old child was living with the mother.

Police also arrested a 65-year-old woman who “has a close relationship with the family of the perpetrator.” The alleged accomplice drove a getaway vehicle.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his deep shock at “the extent of violence in a place that is meant to provide protection.”

The incident marks another multi-people shooting in Germany this year. In January, a family dispute in a Tiergarten apartment in Berlin resulted in four people being wounded by gunfire.

In February, there was a murder-suicide episode in Strullendorf, Bavaria, where a man shot and killed his wife and two children before turning the gun on himself.