Six killed in northern Germany shooting linked to custody dispute

Police in northern Germany said six people were killed after gunfire at a youth welfare facility on Dankersstrasse in Stade, a town of about 50,000 people roughly 40 kilometres west of Hamburg. Five victims died at the scene and a sixth died later in hospital, and police said two people were arrested, including the suspected shooter.

Investigators identified the suspect as a 45-year-old German man and said the apparent trigger was a child custody dispute involving his three-month-old daughter. Police said the child and her mother were unharmed. A police spokesperson described the case as an "extended family tragedy" and said it did not appear to have a political or economic motive.

Authorities said the dead were staff members at the centre. Police also said several other people were injured, some seriously, but did not give an exact figure. The shooting left the institution suddenly turned from a place of care into a crime scene, with officers still mapping the sequence of events around the building and the people inside.

The facility was designed to house some of the people most in need of protection, including pregnant women and young mothers with children. That detail has sharpened scrutiny of how such centres are staffed and secured, particularly when custody disputes and family violence spill into settings built around social support rather than security.

Germany’s gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States, and mass shootings are uncommon even if they are not unknown. Police said they were still working to establish the full background and circumstances of the shooting, with no indication that anyone else remained at large.