Alwaght- At least 9 people were reported to be killed and 21 others were injured in Friday shooting at a crowded shopping center in Munich, Germany, the German police maintained.
The police forces were deployed to the area as reports of assaults at the shopping center came to their stations. They searched for the attackers, believing to be three, but they only found one who committed suicide.
Hubertus Andrae, the Munich's police chief told the media that the assailant killed himself in a side street close to Olympia shopping mall.
Munich police chief added that the surveillance of the existing cameras as well as the statements by witnesses show that he was the sole person who used his gun to kill people who were inside the mall for shopping.
Being asked about the age of the attacker, the police chief answered that he was an 18-year-old German-Iranian who had been living in the German city for nearly two years.
The attacker was not known to the police, or he was not under the security forces’ close watch as a suspect or a potential terrorist, the German officials told the media.
No group yet took responsibility for the deadly attack, unlike many other attacks in Europe which were held responsibility for by the terrorist organization ISIS.
Police said that the initial investigations found no motive for the attacker to carry out the assault at the public place.
Police reported that many children were among those injured.
The attack is a latest one in a series of attacks that have recently occurred in European countries, including France.
Last week France witnessed a terror attack in which a terrorist drove a truck through many French citizens celebrating Bastille Day in the streets of Nice in southeast coast of the country.
A video was circulated on social media showing a man in black that was moving away from a McDonald's restaurant while opening fire on the people as they fled while screaming.
"Another video appeared to show a gunman on the roof of a parking garage as he exchanged insults with people on a nearby balcony who referred to him as foreigner, reported AFP.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel was said that she will convene her security team today to address the deadly attack in a European economic power as the country also counts the economic costs of the attack in a highly safe nation.
German President Joachim Gauck said that he was horrified by the" murderous attack", as German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere who was on a flight to New York was told to return to the country.
The stock markets are expected to see a drop as Europe's largest economy fears that the investors' good image of Germany could change.
This is not the very latest attack in Germany, as last week a teenager who told the investigators he was inspired by the ISIS terror group stabbed passengers on German train station.
The world reacts to Munich attack
The US President Barack Obama as well as the French President François Hollande both offered strong support to Germany.
"Our hearts go out for those who may have been injured. It is still an active situation, and Germany is one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing these circumstances,” said President Obama.
Britain also said to be standing by to assist Germany after the attack, according to the newly appointed Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
"I'm shocked and appalled by the terrible attack unfolding this evening in Munich, and the loss of life. My thoughts are with those injured and the families of those killed," Reuters quoted Johnson as saying in a statement released by his office.
The neighboring Austria said it would intensify security measures in border areas with Germany by putting its elite Cobra police forces on high alert.
On the other side of the world, Iran has condemned the attack of Friday in Munich.
Bahram Qassemi, the spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry has said that "today's massacring of the innocent people in Munich is another stain on the history of the humanity."
"Today fighting against terrorism in all of its forms is an immediate global community and human conscience demand, and it must be a priority for all of the world's countries as part of a global consensus," Fars News Agency quoted Mr. Qassemi as saying.
