9 killed in far-right attack in German city

The gunman who is reported to have killed at least 9 people across a city in western Germany on Wednesday night was a suspected far-right extremist, German officials have said.

Authorities say that the attacks on two late-night shisha bars were the third－and by far the deadliest－far-right terrorist attack in the country in nine months.

Police in Hanau later found the 43-year-old attacker dead in his flat, along with the body of his 72-year-old mother. Reports suggest the gunman had committed suicide at his home after fleeing in a car.

Bild newspaper said the suspect was a German citizen and that ammunition and gun magazines were found in the vehicle. He had a firearms hunting license, it added. It said the shooter, identified by various media as a local man named Tobias Rathjen, ran a far-right website.

German news agency DPA reported, citing unnamed security officials, that a written claim of responsibility and a video were found at the home.

"There are no indications that other suspects were involved," police said in a statement on Thursday, adding that investigations into the identity of the gunman and the victims were ongoing.

The federal prosecution service took charge of the investigation on Thursday, indicating it is treating the case as terrorism, and pointing to an anti-foreigner motive.

"There are early indications pointing toward a racist motive. I utterly condemn this deed. This is an attack on our free and peaceful society," said Peter Beuth, the interior minister of Hessen, the federal state to which Hanau belongs.

Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky told Bild: "This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness."

Turkish origin

Bild reported that some of the victims were of Kurdish descent and others are thought to have been Turkish. Some of those killed were of Turkish origin, a spokesman for the Turkish presidency said.

"We expect German authorities to show maximum effort ...Racism is a collective cancer,"Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman, said on Twitter.

Reuters reported that in Western countries, shisha bars are often owned and operated by people from the Middle East or South Asia, where use of the hookah pipe is a centuries-old tradition.

The leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats party said on Thursday that xenophobia was a growing problem in Germany.

"It's poison to see people as opponents, to see yourself as better than others, to see fellow citizens as foreigners－that's a poison that is increasingly penetrating society and can ultimately lead to these crimes," Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said.