German cinema complex attacker shot dead

A gunman took hostages at a cinema in western Germany today before police shot him dead, a police spokesman told the N-TV television channel, adding that no other people were injured.

German television showed pictures of heavily armed police, wearing helmets and body armour, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim and a couple fleeing the building.

German police walks past a cinema complex after a masked man with a gun and ammunition belt opened fire in the small western town of Viernheim, near Frankfurt, Germany, June 23, 2016. Reuters photo

Live  Germany shooting: Gunman 'shot dead by police' was in 'state of confusion', reports The Telegraph 

German media said earlier that the masked man had opened fire at the cinema complex in the small town near Frankfurt.

Police shot the man dead after elite forces stormed the complex, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported, citing the interior minister of Hesse state. The man was described as "disturbed".

A masked man with a gun and ammunition belt opens fire in Kinopolis cinema complex in the small western German town of Viernheim, near Frankfurt, injuring between 20 and 50 people and barricaded himself inside, German media reports. Photo taken from Kinopolis website

Bild daily said that according to police about 25 people had been exposed to tear gas.

Meanwhile, the gunman appeared to have been a "disturbed man", the interior minister of the state of Hesse said.

The gunman had a rifle or "long gun" and special forces intervened and shot him, interior minister Peter Beuth told the Hesse state parliament. There was no evidence that anyone besides the gunman was injured or killed, Beuth added.

A police spokeswoman also confirmed the gunman had been shot and said nobody was injured.