quote: Fox News

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Police killed a masked man who stormed a German movie theater Thursday afternoon and was believed to have fired shots and taken hostages, authorities said.

The unidentified man was killed after police commandoes gathered around the the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim, about 40 miles south of Frankfurt, following reports that shots had been fired inside, police said.

"The police thought that the gunman was holding hostages and because of that he was shot dead," Hessen State Interior Minister Peter Beuth told local lawmakers.

Beuth said it wasn't clear whether the weapon was real.

The Associated Press reported no one was shot by the gunman, but German media said dozens were treated for exposure to tear gas. It was unclear if the tear gas was released by the suspect or by police.

Before going inside, investigators described it as a "threat situation."

Police in the nearby city of Mannheim sent officers to support the operation, spokesman Norbert Schaetzle told reporters.

The incident evoked the July 2012 incident in Aurora, Colo., in which James Holmes killed 12 and wounded dozens at a screening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."

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quote:

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German police SEK special forces shot and killed a gunman who had taken hostages in a movie-theater complex in the Hessian town of Viernheim on Thursday. None of the hostages or police officers were hurt in the rescue operation.

The unidentified masked man reportedly entered the Kinopolis multiplex Thursday afternoon carrying a number of firearms and wearing bandolier, fired shots into the air and barricaded himself in a theater with hostages.

Special police units stormed the theater complex and killed the gunman. Witnesses reported that a number of shots were fired before the assailant was killed.

Police have not yet identified the man nor the types of firearms he was carrying.

According to Hessian Interior Minister Peter Beuth, the gunman was carrying a rifle and appeared to be confused or disturbed. Spiegel Online, citing police sources, added that the assailant appeared to be a lone and disturbed individual, adding that there was no evidence of a terrorist-related attack.

Initial press reports erroneously reported a number of wounded hostages. Police have stressed that no people were injured in the rescue operation, which has resulted in high praise for the SEK special unit on social media, particularly from Twitter users.

The attack nevertheless echoed the 2012 mass shooting inside the Century 16 theater in Auroroa, Colorado, during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

While mass shootings have become a regular occurrence in the U.S. — most recently at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, earlier this month that killed 49 people and injured 53 others — they are rare in Germany. Only about two people out of every million are killed in gun homicides in Germany. By contrast, in the U.S., 31 per million people die of gun homicides, the equivalent of about 27 people shot dead every day of the year, according to a recent article in New York Times.

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