German special police shot a gunman who took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday (June 23), according to police in the state of Hessen.
Heavily armed SEK forces, wearing helmets and body armor, stormed the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim and a people could be seen fleeing the building.
German media said earlier that the masked man had opened fire at the cinema complex in the small town near Frankfurt. They also reported that some 25 people had been affected by tear-gas during the police operation to kill the man and free the hostages, but no-one else had been injured.
The gunman had a rifle or "long gun", interior minister Peter Beuth told the Hesse state parliament, saying that he appeared to have been a "disturbed man".