Schwalmtal, Germany - Four people were killed in a shooting spree when an apparent marital crisis took a violent turn Tuesday in the western German town of Schwalmtal, close to the Dutch border. Police said that the gunman - apparently the family father - killed four persons and seriously wounded a woman in a shooting spree on the street before he then holed himself up inside a house.
The police later stormed the house, and the man surrendered, with his condition not immediately clear.
The identity of those killed and wounded - whether immediate family members or outsiders - was not immediately known.
While initial information was still sketchy, reports from the peaceful town of 19,000 located 20 kilometres west of the city of Dusseldorf and some 20 kilometres from the Dutch border indicated that the family drama involved a divorce case.
A real estate agent was on a visit to assess the value of the house in the divorce case when the man apparently pulled a weapon and began shooting those around him. He then fled inside a house.
Police, wearing bullet-proof vests, moved in to seal off the area, with a police helicopter seen circling overhead, and initial police accounts had spoken of just one dead and one wounded.
There had also been initial accounts that the gunman had take up to six hostages, but police later said there had been no hostages.
After police stormed the house, they reported the higher death figure of four killed.
Witnesses reported hearing screams as the police entered the building.
One eyewitness told the German Press Agency
