BERLIN, (Reuters) – A German-Iranian teenager who shot and killed nine people and then himself in Munich on Friday had received psychiatric care and was in all probability a lone gunman who had no ties to Islamic State, police said.
The 18-year-old triggered a lockdown in the Bavarian capital after opening fire near a busy shopping mall. He was carrying a further 300 bullets in his backpack when he was later found dead of a gunshot wound, state prosecutor Robert Heimberger said on Saturday.
Following a police search of the attacker’s room, Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae all but ruled out an Islamist link in the killings.
“Based on the searches, there are no indications whatsoever that there is a connection to Islamic State” or to the issue of refugees, he told a news conference.
The investigations had also given no reason to believe he had not acted alone, Andrae said, adding that the killer was born and brought up in theMunich area and had spent time in psychiatric care.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was meeting with her top security advisors to review Friday’s attack, the third on civilians in Western Europe in eight days, and would issue a statement at 1230 GMT, her office said.
