All six shot dead in Germany were Italian

Six Italian men were found fatally shot in the western German city of Duisburg early today, police said.

Five bodies were found in two vehicles near the main train station and a sixth man died in an ambulance, police spokesman Hermann-Josef Helmich said. All six were shot in the head, he said.

Helmich said the men, aged between 16 and 39, were Italians, but gave no other information on their identities.

Police did not know yet who might have committed the killings or what the motive might have been, he said.

A pedestrian heard the shots and “stopped a police patrol car that happened to be in the area,” said another police spokesman, Reinhard Pape.

Police found numerous gun cartridges at the crime scene – about 100 yards away from the train station. The vehicles were parked in front of an Italian restaurant.

“There must have been more than one person involved,” Pape said, adding that the shooting happened about 2am (1am Irish time).

At about 2.30am (1.30am Irish time), police officers found the two vehicles with the victims – a van registered in Duisburg, and a car registered in Pforzheim, in south-western Germany.

The victims appear to have been unarmed, Pape said.