Witness decribes police activity during shooting

Hanau man Deiter Hog said he saw dozens of police officers running around his neighbourhood as authorities were searching for the suspect of a mass shooting that left 11 people dead, including the gunman.

A 43-year-old German man shot and killed nine people at several locations in a Frankfurt suburb overnight in attacks that appear to have been motivated by far-right beliefs, officials said Thursday.

The gunman first attacked a hookah bar in central Hanau at about 10 p.m. Wednesday, killing several people before heading about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) west and opening fire again, claiming more victims.

Witnesses and surveillance videos of the suspect's getaway car led authorities quickly to his home, near the scene of the second attack, where he was found dead near his 72-year-old mother, interior minister for the state of Hesse Peter Beuth said.

Hog said he knew nothing about the suspect and only saw the police activity.

"I came home at 9:30, parked my car and went in. We watched some TV and then my wife said there is a helicopter," said Hog.

"Then we looked out of the window saw a lot of police officers - around 25-30 with 20 big cars and dogs and they were running around."

He said he first thought the disturbance might be a neighbourhood clan fight, "between Turks, Albanians, shisha bars and so on - so something like that."

A website believed to be the suspect's is being evaluated, Beuth said.

He added that initial analysis of the page indicated a xenophobic motivation.

Beuth said federal prosecutors have taken over the investigation of the crime and are treating it as an act of domestic terrorism.

Some of the victims are believed to be Turkish, and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the consulate in Frankfurt and the embassy in Berlin were trying to obtain information on the attack.

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