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Armed man causes chaos at German movie theater

Police said there were no serious injuries to the people in the theater.
Imagen por Boris Roessler/EPA

A gunman took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday 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 armor, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim and a couple fleeing the building.

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

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Police shot the man dead after elite forces stormed the complex, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported, citing the interior minister of Hesse state.

The gunman appeared to be 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.

Initial reports indicated the gunman had possibly wounded between 20 and 50 people at the theater, but those reports were not accurate.

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