A heavily armed man wearing a mask entered a cinema in Viernheim, Germany and opened fire at about 3 p.m. local time. At least 25 people were injured. The attacker was shot and killed by German police.
The cinema is part of a major shopping center, which is home to more than 100 businesses. The complex gets at least 20,000 visitors daily, according to its website. Viernheim is in western Germany, near Frankfurt.
The motive for the shooting is unclear at this point, but authorities in Germany have warned that the country could be a target for ISIS or other extremist groups.
Germany accepted more than 1 million refugees last year, and there have been some concerns about the possibility of ISIS cells in the country.
Mass shootings are extremely rare in Germany due to the limited access to guns by the public. But there have been two mass shootings since 2002:
- In 2002, a gunman opened fire at a high school in Erfurt, killing 16 people — 13 staff members, two students and a police officer.
- In 2009, a gunman dressed in military gear killed 15 people in a rampage that started at a school and spanned two small towns near Stuttgart.
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