Six people were killed in a shooting at a shelter for mothers and children in northern Germany.

Police said three people were detained, including the suspected shooter, and ​that all the fatalities were adults. Footage released by the Bild newspaper showed police ​surrounding and detaining two people from a car that was driving ⁠down a road with a flat tyre.

Police called the incident a homicide with multiple ​victims in the town of Stade near the port city of Hamburg. They did not ​give a motive. The Spiegel news outlet, citing information it obtained, said it was likely a personal rather than political or extremist matter.

Police had warned people to stay away from the ​area where the incident took place, but later said there was no danger ​to the general public.

German media reports initially said four women and one man had been killed. Police ‌later ⁠said a sixth adult had died in hospital of wounds.

Footage posted by Bild showed a car with a flat right tyre slowing to a halt in a tree-lined road. Police with guns then ran towards the car and detained two people who were ​made to lie flat ​on the ground.

Police ⁠cordoned off the area near the facility in a cobbled street with red brick homes, and forensic experts in white ​suits and plainclothes police were at the scene.

Mass shootings are rare ​in Germany, ⁠especially when compared to the United States. In 2023, a gunman in Hamburg shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah’s Witnesses worship hall. In 2016, ⁠an 18-year-old ​German-Iranian man who was obsessed with mass killings ​killed at least nine people in Munich.