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Police officers stand at the door of the nightclub 'Grey' in Konstanz, Germany. According to a police report a 34-year-old man shot at several people inside the club in the early morning. Photo: EPA

Two dead, four wounded in German nightclub shooting

Attack comes after a failed asylum seeker killed one person and injured six others in the northern city of Hamburg on Friday

A gunman opened fire at a nightclub in southern Germany early Sunday, killing one and wounding four before being shot by police.

The 34-year-old attacker “was critically injured in a shootout with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital,” police said in a statement.

Police said they did not believe that the shooting was a terror attack.

“We’re not assuming that this is an act of terrorist violence,” police spokesman Fritz Bezikofer told rolling news channel NTV.

The gunman is an Iraqi national who is not an asylum seeker, added the spokesman.

Another police source said the man could have been motivated by personal relationship issues.

Officers began receiving emergency calls from terrified clubbers at around 4:30 am after the man began shooting in the nightclub in an industrial zone in the city of Konstanz, killing one person on the spot and leaving three other people seriously wounded.

Shortly after he left the building, he was shot by police. One officer was also injured in the exchange of fire.

Terrified nightclubbers had either fled the building or found a place to hide, police said, adding that the danger was now over.

Helicopters were circling overhead and special forces were also deployed to secure the site.

Local broadcaster SWR reported witnesses saying that the gunman was armed with an automatic pistol.

A bouncer at the site had sought to stop the attacker, but was himself injured by the man, SWR said.

The shooting came just two days after Germany was shaken by a knife attack in the northern port city of Hamburg.

A 26-year-old Palestinian had killed one and injured six in an assault at a supermarket.

He was a known Islamist with psychological problems, and investigators say his motives remain unclear.

Germany has been on high alert about the threat of a jihadist attack, especially since last December’s truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market that claimed 12 lives.

But it has also been hit by other assaults unrelated to the jihadist threat.

Among the deadliest in recent years is a Munich shopping mall rampage by 18-year-old German-Iranian man which left 10 people dead including the gunman himself.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Gunman kills one, injures three in nightclub shooting
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