FRANKFURT • Eleven people were killed in shooting incidents on Wednesday night in the German town of Hanau near Frankfurt in what the authorities said may have been a right-wing extremist terror attack.
The news prompted immediate soul-searching in a nation gripped by concerns about the rise of the far right, which is upending the traditional political order in Europe's biggest economy and disrupting the final stages of German leader Angela Merkel's four-term chancellorship.
Nine people were killed at two different bars, before the suspected perpetrator and his mother were found dead in his home nearby, the authorities said.
The suspect was a 43-year-old German national from Hanau, according to Mr Peter Beuth, Interior Minister in the regional Hesse government. Bild newspaper identified the suspect as Tobias R.
The federal prosecutor has taken over the case and is treating it as a suspected terror attack, Mr Beuth said.
"A first analysis of the suspected culprit's homepage points to a xenophobic motive," he said in a statement to the Hesse Parliament. Some of the victims were of Kurdish origin, Bild said, without naming the source of its information.
Mr Beuth said the suspect was not previously known to the authorities and had apparently acted alone.
Dr Merkel cancelled a planned trip to the city of Halle yesterday.
If the Hanau shooter's motive is confirmed, it would be the third prominent assault by the extreme right in less than a year after a synagogue attack in eastern Germany last October and the murder of a regional lawmaker from Dr Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party last June.
A grim-faced Dr Merkel said in a brief statement in Berlin: "We will work against those who try to divide us in Germany with all possible strength and decisiveness.
"Racism is poison, hate is poison, and this poison exists in our society, and is at fault for far too many crimes."
The initial shots were fired at the Midnight shisha bar at the Heumarkt in the town centre at around 10pm, local media reported. After entering the bar's smoking area, the shooter fired wildly at guests, killing five.
The next incident was around 2km away at the Arena Bar & Cafe in the Kesselstadt neighbourhood.
The body of the suspected shooter was later found in his apartment, also in Kesselstadt, along with that of another person, police said. Bild said the second victim was the suspect's mother.
Germany has relatively strict gun controls but has suffered shooting attacks by lone gunmen before.
The Hanau shooting comes at an extremely delicate juncture in German politics, with the far right on the rise and Dr Merkel's grip on power weakened.
BLOOMBERG
