HAMBURG, Germany — Several people were fatally shot during an event held by Jehovah’s Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg, police said Thursday evening, with the perpetrator possibly among the dead.

The police and the city’s interior ministry did not initially confirm the number of fatalities.

“According to initial findings, there are several dead among the victims,” the police said. All of the fatalities suffered gunshot wounds, according to a spokesperson.

A report by Bild newspaper put the number of dead at seven and said at least eight others were injured during the shooting in a Kingdom Hall building.

Hamburg police classified the crime as a rampage, security sources said.

The attack occurred at around 9 p.m. local time in the northern Groß Borstel area of the city, where special forces were deployed alongside Hamburg police.

Police were notified of the shooting by a phone call at around 9:15 pm, according to an official warning telling the public to avoid the area.

A special police unit in the vicinity entered the property and even heard a gunshot, a police spokesperson told broadcaster n-tv.

Police initially saw dead and injured people and then heard the shot, he said. They found a dead man in the upper part of the building who they believe may have been the perpetrator, although this remained unclear.

There are currently no indications that a perpetrator is on the run. “At the moment, the situation has calmed down,” a police spokesperson said.

A local resident reported hearing several rounds of gunshots fired at the Jehovah’s Witnesses event. “There were about four shooting periods,” Laura Bauch, a student, said. “During each of these periods several shots were fired, about 20 seconds to a minute apart.”

“I then looked further out of the window and saw a person running quite frantically from the ground floor to the first floor at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ building,” she added.

She later saw police carrying people out of the building, Bauch said.

A forensic team entered the building a four hours after the shooting.

There were flashing blue lights at the scene as police cordoned off the area, backed up by officers carrying submachine guns securing the crime scene, and a helicopter hovered over the area.

The officers were working to “ensure security at the scene and to quickly and comprehensively clarify the detailed circumstances of the crime,” Senator of the Interior Andy Grote wrote on Twitter.

The nature of the event held in the place of worship for Jehovah’s Witnesses — a three-story commercial building — was also initially unclear. According to the church’s website, a weekly gathering had been scheduled for Thursday night that was open to the public, to discuss the Bible and how its teachings can be taken into account in life.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian group with its own interpretation of the Bible. Followers believe that the destruction of the present world is imminent and that they will be saved as a chosen community. The group has about 8 million members worldwide, with the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses based in New York. The German community, with approximately 200,000 members, is one of the largest in Europe.

Police closed off roads leading to the scene of the crime and asked people to avoid the area.

Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher expressed his shock at the shooting in the Alsterdorf, Groß Borstel area, a district with about 15,000 people.

“My deepest sympathy goes to the relatives of the victims,” he wrote. Police were “working flat out to pursue the perpetrators and clarify the background (to the crime).”