Doctor shoots colleague, himself dead

Christian Hartwig, a prosecutor, said a doctor shot his colleague dead on Thursday before turning the gun on himself in a medical practice for radiology in the western German City of Marburg.

“There is no indication that there was an external perpetrator, the firearm used to commit the crime had been confiscated,’’ Hartwig said.

Clarification has yet to be made, however, over an earlier statement that both men had been shot several times.

The incident occurred around 12:50 p.m. when witnesses heard gunshots and alerted the police shortly thereafter.

The doctors, aged 53 and 67, were found dead inside a building near the city’s main train station that contained the medical practice and apartments.

Details about the reason for the crime were not known, but Hartwig said that there was no evidence to suggest it was politically motivated.

A regional transport company, RMV said on its website that the square outside Marburg’s main train station had been cordoned off due to an ongoing police operation.

In 2012, a pensioner shot two doctors and himself in a doctor’s office in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

In July, a patient of Berlin’s Benjamin Franklin Hospital injured a doctor and shot himself dead; the doctor later died as a result of injuries he sustained.

(dpa/NAN)