No fewer than seven people have been confirmed dead and dozens of others injured during a recent shooting that occurred at a Jehovah’s Witness Hall in the German city of Hamburg, Germany, the police said in a statement.

According to many German media reports, the shooting happened at the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in the Gross Borstel district at around 9 p.m. local time.

The police statement said officers were notified about the incident around 9:15 p.m. and arrived at the scene quickly because they were “coincidentally very, very near.”

The spokesperson of Police, Holger Vehren, said after officers got to the scene and saw people with apparent gunshot wounds on the ground floor, a shot was heard from an upper floor and they found a fatally wounded person upstairs.

While reporting the shooting, the Bild newspaper stated that seven people were dead and 25 others injured, out of which eight were serious.

The report stated: “It is unclear if the attacker was included in the death toll but police said that several people were seriously injured.

“As news of the shooting emerged, Hamburg police said that a major operation was underway in the GrossBorstel district of the city.

“Several streets were sealed off and the public warned by text message to avoid the area. Local residents were told to stay indoors and only to use their phones in extreme emergency” so as not to overburden the network,” the report stated.

In its statement, police said: “According to initial findings, shots were fired in a church on Deelbögestrasse in the GrossBorstel district.

“Several people were seriously injured, some fatally. The dead all have gunshot wounds. We are on site with a large contingent of officers.