Two die in courthouse shooting

BERLIN – A gunman opened fire in a courthouse in Bavaria yesterday, killing a woman and injuring several other people, German police said. The gunman then apparently shot himself. The incident took place at the administrative court in Landshut, about 75km northeast of Munich.

Several shots were fired in the building at about 10h15, police spokesperson Thomas Ploessl said. Another spokesperson, Leonard Mayer, said the gunman then apparently killed himself. Elisabeth Waitzinger, a court spokesperson, said the gunman and his victim were related. However, there was no immediate information on the identity of the gunman or a possible motive. Asked how the gunman was able to bring a weapon into the building, Waitzinger said there are no checks on people attending civil cases of the kind the court handles. Mayer said there had been no warning of the shooting, which came ‘out of a blue sky’. Horst Schladt, a regional prosecutor, said there was no longer any danger to people at the scene. The shooting came about a month after 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer killed nine students and three teachers at his former high school in Winnenden, in southwestern Germany, before fatally shooting three others. He then took his own life in an exchange of gunfire with police. – Nampa-AP