Man who opened fire in German cinema shot dead by police

Murder

A masked man has been shot dead after entering a cinema in south-west Germany with a weapon and taking several hostages.

No one else was injured in the incident in which the armed man entered the Kinopolis movie theatre in the early afternoon in the town of Viernheim and apparently fired a gun.

Police shot the suspect dead about three hours later, Hesse interior minister Peter Beuth said.

"We believe that there were no injured people, and that the people who were in the cinema with the perpetrator could be freed uninjured," he said.

A police spokeswoman at the scene, Christiane Kompus, told The Associated Press that she had no information on the assailant's identity and motives.

She said the man had been holding several hostages, but did not have a precise number.

Mr Beuth said it was not clear whether the weapon was real. He told the regional legislature in Wiesbaden that the man was masked and that apparently four shots were fired.

Mr Beuth said the man had given a confused impression, news agency dpa reported.

Nina Reininger, a prosecutor in nearby Darmstadt, said her office was investigating but she has no information so far on the attacker's identity.