Reports: At Least 8 Dead In Munich Mall Shooting

Munich police warned people to avoid public places Friday as they hunted for the shooter or shooters who opened fire at a shopping mall, killing eight people and wounding others in a rampage described as "suspected terrorism."

A source told CBS News that one gunman killed himself in the aftermath of the shooting at a McDonald's at the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall.

Police said witnesses reported seeing three people with firearms.

A U.S. government official told CBS News that investigators were confident classifying the shooting as a terrorist attack, CBS News homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues reports. The official would not go into specifics but said the nature of the evidence available pointed to terrorism.

The city of Munich sent a smartphone alert telling people to stay indoors and German rail company Deutsche Bahn stopped train traffic to Munich's main station.

Munich police said on Twitter that there were six deaths and an unknown number of people injured.

A U.S. law enforcement source told CBS News that it appeared that 10 people were wounded but the situation was fluid, CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

In Washington, President Obama reacted to the shooting in remarks to his policing task force.

"Germany's one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances," Mr. Obama said.

Munich police spokesman Thomas Baumann told German news agency dpa the attack started at a fast food restaurant shortly before 6 p.m. local time.

A video posted to Twitter shows people running away from the scene.

Shooting in #Munich shopping mall #OEZ!! People running away to seek shelter!! pic.twitter.com/PB189s6RQy

— Thamina Stoll (@thaminastoll) July 22, 2016
 

Video obtained by The Associated Press from German news agency NonstopNews showed two bodies with sheets draped over them not far from a McDonald's across from the mall.

Bayrischer Rundfunk reported that shops in the center of Munich had closed with customers inside though police said reports of shots fired at a location downtown had been a false alarm.

Police responded in large numbers to the mall in the northern part of Munich, not far from the city's Olympic Stadium in the Moosach district of the Bavarian capital.

Facebook launched its "safety check" feature for users to let their friends know whether they're OK.

It was also not far from where Palestinian attackers opened fire in the Olympic Village in 1972, killing 11 Israeli athletes.

It was the second attack in Germany in less than a week. On Monday, a 17-year-old Afghan wounded four people in an ax-and-knife attack on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, and another woman outside as he fled. All survived, although one man from the train remains in life-threatening condition. The attacker was shot and killed by police.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teen likely acted alone.