Gunman storms into court in Germany and shoots five

A gunman rampaged through a German courtroom today, shooting dead a woman and wounding four people before killing himself.

The shootings happened in the state court in Landshut, Bavaria, shortly after 10am. The gunman — who shot himself as police charged into the building — opened fire as he walked from room to room. The dead woman was thought to have been his sister.

"He was in one court then went into the corridor to open fire," said court spokeswoman Elisabeth Waitzinger. She said the gunman shot at a lawyer and members of his own family and that all the victims were believed to be related to the killer, who came from the town of Dingolfing about 20 miles away.

Police spokesman Thomas Ploessl said one victim needed artificial respiration to save her life. The condition of the other wounded is not known.
The gunman is said to have been 60 and was a litigant in a case involving an inheritance. It is understood he was unhappy with the way it was going.

Questions were asked over how he got his weapon — a large-calibre handgun — past metal detectors and security guards into the court, a modern six-storey building outside the centre of Landshut. He shot himself minutes after opening fire.

Helicopters took the wounded to hospitals. "It's a bloodbath in there," a woman told the NTV news channel after escaping from the building.

People were seen streaming from the aftermath of the shooting with blood running down their faces, either from their wounds or from victims who were shot nearby.

The attack comes three weeks after student Tim Kretschmer, 17, shot 15 people at his former school near Stuttgart before taking his own life.
Germany is now second to the US for its number of gun massacres. In 2002 a teenage gunman killed 16 people and then himself at a school in Erfurt. There were false threats of mass-shootings after Kretschmer's massacre on 11 March.

Gun laws are under review after his shootings, which he carried out with an automatic pistol that his gun-club member father failed to store with the rest of his weapons in a secure safe. There are 10 million legally registered guns in Germany.