Manhunt under way after four injured in Berlin shooting

Four people were injured in a shooting in the German capital, Berlin, in the early hours of Saturday, police said, adding that a manhunt was under way for the unidentified assailants who fled the scene.

A police spokeswoman said the four injured were taken to hospital after the altercation involving several people in the Kreuzberg district, adding there was no indication of a political motive.

Armed police officers were searching the area near the headquarters of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), on foot and by helicopter.

Three of those injured were found in a driveway, the fourth was pulled from a canal in the area and had apparently suffered a leg injury.

Mass shootings are a rare occurrence in Germany.

In October last year, a far-right attacker shot and killed two people in the eastern city of Halle after trying to get into a packed synagogue with home-made weapons.

In July 2016, a teenager used a pistol bought illegally online to kill nine people in a shooting spree at a Munich shopping centre, before turning the weapon on himself.

Most recently there was an attack by about 10 men on a ground-floor flat and a car in Kreuzberg after a 29-year-old was shot.

More to follow