The motive for the shooting at a youth welfare centre to the west of Hamburg in which six people were killed was most likely a custody battle, Police Chief Kathrin Schuol said at a press conference on Monday evening.
All six people killed in the town of Stade were employees of the facility, said Schuol, who heads the police in the town of Lüneburg. Both Stade and Lüneburg are located in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.
Lower Saxony Interior Minister Daniela Behrens described the act as "cold-blooded" at the press conference.
Five adults were killed at the scene in the shooting at the youth welfare facility in Stade, police said, with a sixth person dying later in hospital. Several others were also injured, some of them seriously.
