Feb. 20 (UPI) — Authorities said the shooter who attacked two hookah bars in Germany late Wednesday may have been motivated by xenophobia.
The shooting was classified “suspected terroristic act of violence” by regional interior minister Peter Beuth. The assailant, who has not yet been identified, killed nine people at the two bars in Hanau, a town 15 miles east of Frankfurt.
The gunman’s body was later found by authorities at his home, along with that of his mother.
“This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness,” Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky said.
Police said there are “no indications of further perpetrators.”
Hookah bars are popular in Germany, authorities said.
Peter R. Neumann, the founding director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, said the shooter appeared to have had a hatred for foreigners and non-whites, according to his social accounts. The gunman called for the “extermination” of various Muslim-majority countries in North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, according to a manifesto authorities believe belonged to him.
“He justifies his call for killing the populations of entire countries in explicitly eugenicist terms, saying that the science proves that certain races are superior,” Neumann said.
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