Shooting in Munich

Berlin (dpa) - At least nine people were killed during a shooting committed by an 18-year-old German-Iranian man on Friday in Munich. The man was carrying a pistol and a red rucksack when he started shooting in a McDonald's restaurant at 5:52 pm (1552 GMT) at the Olympia shopping centre.

The teen spent a year planning the attack, and his research of previous shootings included a trip to the scene of a 2009 school massacre in Germany, police and prosecutors said Sunday.

The 18-year-old wrote a manifesto about the crime he planned to commit and an online chat retrieved from his computer indicates he bought the Glock pistol used in the shooting on the dark net, Bavarian police chief Robert Heimberger said.

In 2015, he travelled to scene of a massacre that occurred six years earlier at a secondary school in the southern German town of Winnenden, followed by a shootout at a nearby car dealership. The teen took photos there, which were later retrieved from his camera.

The son of Iranian asylum seekers spent two months in 2015 in a psychiatric hospital receiving treatment for "social phobias" and anxiety and continued treatment thereafter, prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch said, adding that anti-depressants had been found in his room.

The prosecutor said that the teen regularly played Counter-Strike, a violent first-person shooter video game which he said is played by most perpetrators of mass killings.

The shooter did extensive research on the far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, whose rampage in Norway five years ago left 77 people dead, officials said.

A search of the suspect's home also revealed literature including a German translation of the book, Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters, by US psychologist Peter Langman.

The fact that six of nine victims had a non-German heritage - including Turkish, Hungarian, Greek and Kosovar - was a complete coincidence, Steinkraus-Koch said, adding that there was no political motivation behind the crime.

Witness accounts and smartphone footage of the attack had indicated the suspect may have harboured resentment towards foreigners even though he was the German-born son of Iranian immigrants.

The prosecutor confirmed that the shooter had been a victim of bullying on several occasions in 2012, but that there were no fellow students among the victims.

Officials said that the teen's parents were in no state to be interviewed by police, but that the father had been the first to identify the shooter after recognizing him in video footage circulated shortly after the attack.

Police raised the number of people injured in Friday's rampage from two dozen to 35. The toll includes 31 hurt when panic broke out at the shopping centre and other locations in the city centre. Only four suffered gunshot wounds.

Leaders from around the world reacted to the shooting rampage.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germans are mourning those who died in the Munich attack and "share the pain" of the victims' families and friends. "These are very difficult hours," said Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria, of which Munich is the state capital.

"Our hearts go out to those who may have been injured," US President Barack Obama said. "Germany is one of our closest allies, so we are going to pledge all the support that they may need in dealing with these circumstances."

US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to express his condolences and pledge US assistance in the investigation.

"Secretary Kerry also conveyed our strong commitment to stand united with Germany against such acts of violence," US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.

French President Francois Hollande said, "the terrorist attack that has hit Munich, causing many casualties, is a new ignoble act that intends to seize Germany with terror after [having done so in] other European countries. [Germany] can count on the friendship and cooperation of France."

Belgian Prime Minister wrote on Twitter: "Profoundly shocked. I condemn in the strongest terms the cowardly and despicable attack in Munich." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in another tweet: "Our thoughts are with the victims in Munich, their families and the police who risked their lives for defending a peaceful society." EU President Donald Tusk said in another tweeted: "All of Europe now with Munich." Flags outside EU buildings in Brussels were flying at half mast.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolence telegrams to Merkel and Bavaria's Seehofer, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Italian President Sergio Mattarella said "yet another, brutal homicidal act ... has once again struck at the heart of Europe. These acts continue to shock our consciences and require firm and united responses."

"My thoughts are with our friends, the German people, families of the victims and all those injured, to whom I wish a speedy and complete recovery," he added in his message to German President Joachim Gauck.

The Spanish royal palace wrote on Twitter: "Our wholehearted solidarity with the families of the victims and with the city of Munich and Germany in these hours of distress." Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he had spoken with Merkel on the phone to express his condolences and wish all the injured a full recovery.

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency said the country "categorically" condemns the attack, and quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying: "Today, [the] fight against terrorism in any form and anywhere should be regarded as a serious and prompt demand of the international community and human conscience and should be a pattern for all countries."

The debate in Germany in the aftermath of the shooting turned to gun control, with two members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet calling for the existing legislation to be reexamined.

"We must continue to do everything in our power to limit access to deadly weapons," Sigmar Gabriel, Economics Minister and Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy, told the Funke media group on Sunday.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that once it had been determined how the teenager had acquired the pistol, it would have to be "carefully examined whether and to what extent there is a need for legislative action."