German police on Friday said eight people were killed, including the gunman, at a shooting at a Jehovah's Witnesses place of worship in the northern city of Hamburg on Thursday evening.
Police investigators are still gathering evidence at the crime scene after the rampage on Thursday evening in the northern Groß Borstel district of the city.
The operation was ongoing and "everything is in flux," said a police spokesperson.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the shooting as a "brutal act of violence."
"My thoughts are with [the victims] and their families. And with the security forces who have faced a difficult operation," the German chancellor wrote on Twitter on Friday morning.
A police spokesperson told reporters late on Thursday that after arriving at the scene officers saw dead and injured people and then heard a shot.
They found a dead man in the upper part of the building who police believe may have been the perpetrator - but this has not been confirmed.
A press conference due to be attended by the city's senator for the interior, Andy Grote, as well as the head of police and prosecution, has been scheduled for around midday (1100 GMT).
Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian group with its own interpretation of the Bible. Followers believe that the destruction of the present world is imminent and that they will be saved as a chosen community.
The German community, with approximately 200,000 members, is one of the largest in Europe.
