A man fires several shots in front of a busy restaurant in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Three people are injured, one seriously. The investigators take a 40-year-old into custody - but it is not the alleged shooter.
Three people were injured by shots, including a man who was initially in mortal danger: a dispute between two groups suddenly escalated on Saturday evening in front of a well-stocked fast-food restaurant in Oberhausen. First, there is a physical altercation, as the investigators said. Then a 51-year-old man is said to have fired with a sharp gun at the outdoor meeting. A 49-year-old man was shot in the abdomen. A 47-year-old woman was shot in the leg and a 28-year-old man in the arm. According to the first findings, the alleged shooter flees in a car. Paramedics take the injured to hospitals.
The investigators assume that the injured are not accidental victims, but that a meeting was arranged. They also assume that more people were involved on both sides. A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office said it may have been about business matters. How many people met in the outdoor area of the fast food restaurant was therefore still unclear.
According to their own statements, the investigators secured recordings from surveillance cameras, which should provide further insight into the course of the crime. The 49-year-old was no longer in mortal danger after an emergency operation, according to the public prosecutor and the police.
Just two and a half hours after the shots were fired in the Ruhr area city of Oberhausen, police officers provisionally arrested a 40-year-old man in Gelsenkirchen. He is said to have been present but not to have fired and is now in police custody.
Meanwhile, the search for the suspected shooter continued at full speed. The 51-year-old suspect lives in Essen and, according to the public prosecutor, has Turkish citizenship. During a search, officers did not find the person they were looking for. The public prosecutor's office did not provide any further information about the firearm.
During the shots in a very busy place in Oberhausen, there were apparently many people nearby, including pedestrians. Officials spoke to a number of people on Saturday evening in a bus specially provided for this purpose, as a dpa photographer reported. Pastors are also said to have been on site. Individual people said they were shocked by the events that had taken place in their area shortly before.
