Two mechanics were praised last night after overpowering and capturing a gunman who had earlier shot dead two people in northern Bavaria.
The mechanics were working at a petrol station in Bad Windsheim when the shooter entered the shop and threatened employees with a gun, police said. “Thanks to the courageous intervention of these employees, the perpetrator was able to be stopped,” Joachim Hermann, Bavaria’s interior minister, told a news conference.
The suspect, a 47-year-old from the nearby town of Ansbach named as Bernd G, not previously known to the authorities, was detained by police after a manhunt in which four helicopters were used.
The man shot dead an 82-year-old woman from his Mercedes convertible in the small town of Leutershausen and later a 72-year-old cyclist in nearby Rammersdorf.
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Another man was threatened with a gun, and shortly afterwards a tractor driver was shot at, but was unhurt, police said.
The gunman is undergoing psychiatric examination, after which police will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant or send him to a psychiatric hospital.