Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - As night falls on Germany, police in Munich are on a desperate hunt to catch at least three gunmen who earlier today carried out attacks on a shopping center, killing several and wounding many.

The reported number of dead widely fluctuated. A police spokesman said that six had died, although could not confirm the number.

A spokesman said that witnesses had seen the three men carrying long rifles and two German news outlets reported soon after the shooting that either 10 or 15 people had died.

The mall near the southern German city's Olympic stadium was surrounded by police after shots were fired.

Unconfirmed footage shows a gunman dressed in black emerging from a McDonalds at the shopping mall, opening fire with a pistol on civillians.

One of the gunmen later killed himself near the shopping center by shooting himself in the head, German magazine Focus reported, without citing sources.

Munich newspaper TZ says it received information about one of the dead gunmen, but it is unconfirmed.

The footage could be corroborated by a police source. "The shooting apparently began at a McDonald's in the shopping center. There are still people in the shopping center. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them," a Munich police spokeswoman said.

"There is a major police operation under way in the shopping centre," Munich police said on Twitter, urging people to avoid the area.
Emergency vehicles were seen in the streets outside, as passers-by looked on.

The German government is preparing for a “crisis situation” due to the shooting, according to news agency DPA. Meanwhile members of Germany’s elite anti-terrorism force are on their way to the scene of the deadly shooting.

Munich transportation authorities say have halted service on multiple train, tram and bus lines, and the city's central train station has also been evacuated.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Footage posted on Twitter by a German user showed a gunman armed with a pistol pacing earlier on the roof of the shopping center, and then opening fire.

A local broadcaster BR has said that police are asking people to leave highways near Munich, a likely sign that authorities are widening their search for the gunmen.

The attack comes just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on the rampage with an axe and a knife on a regional train in Germany, injuring five people.

*Agencies