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Special forces police officers outside the Olympia shopping mall in Munich. Photo: TNS

Update | Munich shooting: German-Iranian gunman dead after rampage through shopping centre kills 10

Police say the man acted alone, dismissing witness reports three men with guns were involved

An 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman who apparently acted alone opened fire in a busy shopping mall in Munich on Friday evening, killing at least 10 people and wounding 16 in the third attack against civilians in Western Europe in eight days.

The pistol-wielding attacker, identified by Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae as a dual national, was later found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

Police, citing eyewitness accounts, had initially said they were looking for up to three suspects in the shooting attack at the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre that sent shoppers fleeing in panic and shut traffic across the city.

Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, but police said on Twitter that “as part of our manhunt we found a person who had killed himself – the person is likely to have been the attacker who, according to the current state of the investigation, acted alone.”

They lifted a shutdown of all public transport in the Bavarian capital, and said more details would be disclosed at a press conference later in the morning.

While police called the mall shooting an act of terrorism, they said they had “no indication” it involved Islamic extremism and at least one witness said he heard a shooter shout an anti-foreigner slur.

It was the third major act of violence against civilian targets to take place in Western Europe in eight days. Previous attacks in France and Germany were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

As it happened

Authorities had evacuated people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside. Munich’s main railway station was also evacuated.

“We are telling the people of Munich there are shooters on the run who are dangerous,” a spokesman told reporters, adding that the police were looking for three perpetrators. “We are urging people to stay indoors.”

The Bavarian capital was placed under a state of emergency as police hunted for them and special forces deployed in the city.

WATCH: (Warning: distressing content!) Munich plunged into terror

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.

A Munich police spokeswoman said several people were wounded. “We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” the spokeswoman said.

The shopping centre is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-weilding teenager also went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that onslaught.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but supporters of Islamic State celebrated the rampage on social media.

“Thank God, may God bring prosperity to our Islamic State men,” read one tweet.

“The Islamic state is expanding in Europe,” read another.

More than one gunman was believed to be involved, the police spokeswoman said.

“The first reports came at 6 p.m., the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping centre. There are still people in the shopping centre. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them,” she said.

Police special forces had arrived at the scene, NTV said.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich.

“All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive,”

“We have no further information, we’re just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet.”

Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.

Police in Munich have told people to stay in their homes or, if outside, to seek shelter indoors while the shopping mall shooting emergency in the German city remains ongoing.

The Munich police Facebook page said witnesses had reported seeing three different gunmen. Those witnesses also said there was shooting in nearby streets as well as inside the Olympia shopping mall. The Munich assault was also reminiscent of Islamist militant attacks in a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013 and on a hotel in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper’s Friday edition that there was “no reason to panic but it’s clear that Germany remains a possible target”.

A policeman secures an area around the shopping mall in Munich where gunmen launched an attack on Friday. Photo: AFP

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

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