Munich shooter offered free food on hacked FB profile to lure victims: cops
London: The teenage German-Iranian gunman Ali Sonboly, who killed nine people in a shooting rampage at a Munich mall before committing suicide, hacked into a teenage girl’s Facebook profile to lure children, in order to kill them.
According to the Daily Mail, Sonboly hacked into the profile of one Selina Akim, and wrote, “Come today at 4pm to OEZ. I can buy you something if you want, but not too expensive,” referring to the eatery near the Olympics stadium. The woman reported soon after that her account has been hacked.
The shooter hacked the account, and sent the message urging people to come to the mall for a free giveaway, so that he could kill them, Munich police investigator Robert Heimberger said.
Read: Munich attacker was shy video game fan
The third attack on civilians in Europe in barely a week, shoppers at Olympia shopping mall were in for a shock on Friday as a teenage boy armed with a hand gun, opened indiscriminate fire at a McDonald's restaurant killing nine people and wounding 16.
Read: Islamic State supporters hail deadly Munich shooting on social media
The DailyMail also quoted one of the witnesses as saying that Sonboly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ before opening fire. “I hear like an alarm and boom, boom, boom ... and he's still killing the children. The children were sitting to eat. They can't run,” she said adding that she heard Sonboly shout 'Allahu Akbar'.
“I'm Muslim. I hear this and I only cry,” the witness, identified only as Lauretta, said.
Meanwhile, the German police said that they had no evidence to link Sonboly to the Islamic State group and described the attack as "a classic act by a deranged person."
"There is absolutely no link to the Islamic State," Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said, adding that the suspect had been obsessed with books and articles about mass killings "linked to maniacs."
Read: Munich shooter was German-Iranian teen, motive 'unclear': Police
The Munich prosecutor also said the suspect had suffered depression and reportedly undergone psychiatric treatment.
The attacker was shot and wounded after a stand off with the police, but he had managed to escape.
The suspected attacker's body was later found about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the mall where the shootings took place, German DPA news agency reported.
"We found a man who killed himself. We assume that he was the only shooter," police said on Twitter.
Read: Police hunt for motive in Munich shooting that left 10 dead
A video posted on social media appeared to show a man dressed in black walking away from a McDonald's while firing repeatedly on people as they fled screaming.
Munich's main train station was evacuated and metro and bus transport in the city suspended for several hours while residents were ordered to stay inside, leaving the streets largely deserted.
By early Saturday, transport services were running again, Munich police said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene her security council on Saturday to address the deadly rampage in the European economic powerhouse which took in more than one million migrants and refugees last year.
Read: Panic and terror in Munich shooting, survivors describe scenes of horror
"We are determined to do everything we can so that terror and inhuman violence stand no chance in Germany," her chief of staff Peter Altmaier said.
'Murderous'
The spree began before 1600 GMT at the McDonald's and continued on a nearby street before the attacker moved into the Olympia centre -- which lies not far from the scene of the 1972 Olympics massacre.
Shoppers rushed away from the mall, some carrying children in their arms, as the building was surrounded by armed police and emergency vehicles, while helicopters buzzed overhead.
The attack came just days after a teenage asylum seeker went on a rampage with an axe and a knife on a train on Monday near Wuerzburg, also in Bavaria, injuring five people.
Read: Munich shopping centre attack: What we know so far
De Maiziere had said the teenager was believed to be a "lone wolf" who appeared to have been "inspired" by IS but was not a member of the jihadist network.
The train rampage triggered calls by politicians in Bavaria to impose an upper limit on the number of refugees coming into Germany, which accepted a record 1.1 million migrants and refugees last year.
German President Joachim Gauck said he was horrified by the "murderous attack", while Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who was on a flight to New York when the shooting began, said he will return to Germany.
US President Barack Obama and French counterpart Francois Hollande voiced staunch support for their close ally.
"Germany's one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances," Obama said, speaking before the nine deaths were confirmed.
"The president of the republic offers his sympathy and support to the German people in this difficult hour," Hollande said, according to a statement from the presidency.
Austria said it had "significantly" tightened security measures in states sharing a border with Germany and put its elite Cobra police force on high alert.
String of attacks
The Munich mall is near the stadium for the 1972 Olympics and the athletes' village which was the site of the hostage-taking and massacre of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September group during the Games.
The shooting coincides with the fifth anniversary of the the massacre of 77 people in Norway by rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik.
Europe has been on alert for terrorism in the wake of a string of attacks in neighbouring France and Belgium claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
The Mall shooting occurred just eight days after 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a truck to mow down 84 people, including children, in the French Riviera city of Nice.
It was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months.
In March, IS claimed suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a city metro station that left 32 people dead.
In May, a mentally unstable 27-year-old man carried out a knife attack on a regional train in Bavaria, killing one person and injuring three others.
