Germany suspect was in custody dispute - police

The suspected shooter who killed six people at a German youth welfare centre was in a custody dispute over his three-month-old daughter, police said.

The victims of the shooting - four women and two men - were youth welfare employees, a police official told a press conference.

The girl and her mother were in the office at the time of the shooting but were not harmed.

Footage published by Bild newspaper showed police surrounding and detaining two people from a car that was being driven down a road with a burst tyre.

Police described the shooting in the town of Stade, near the port city of Hamburg, as a homicide.

Earlier, Spiegel news outlet said the shooting was likely a personal rather than a political or extremist matter.

German media reports initially said that four women and one man were dead.

Police later said that a sixth adult had died in hospital.

Footage posted by Bild showed a car with a burst right tyre slowing to a halt on a tree-lined road.

Police with guns ran towards the car and detained two people who were made lie on the ground.

Mass shootings are rare in Germany, especially when compared to the US.

In 2023, a gunman in Hamburg shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah's Witness worship hall.

In 2016, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man killed at least nine people in Munich.