Man gunned down in Hamburg street, police hunt for killer

Police in the northern German city of Hamburg are hunting for a suspect who shot and killed a man in a public street, reported dpa.

The victim died of his injuries in hospital overnight, police said on Saturday morning. The deceased was 26-years-old and the shooter fled the scene on a bicycle, according to the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. A manhunt is underway.

Police said witnesses alerted them shortly before midnight on Friday because they had heard the sound of gunshots in the district of Borgfelde, just east of the city centre. Police found a man lying in a street with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and leg.

Rescue workers took him to hospital, where he died shortly afterwards. The reason for the crime was initially unclear.

Shooting deaths in Germany are relatively rare. According to the World Population Review, gun deaths in Germany, which includes suicides and homicides, were 1.22 per 100,000 population in 2019 - higher than in some other European countries, such as Spain, which had a 0.64 rate, but much lower than the United States, with has liberal gun laws and 10.89 deaths per 100,000.