Four people killed in the Oberlin Clinic in Potsdam

A 51-year-old woman was detained after four people were killed and one injured in the Oberlin Clinic in Germany's Potsdam late on Wednesday.

The woman was "urgently suspected" of the killings, police spokesman Thorsten Herbst told the AP news agency. Later, officials said the suspect was working in the clinic.

The motives for the apparent crime were not immediately clear.

A spokesman for Brandenburg state police said officers were called to the Oberlin Clinic shortly before 9 p.m. local time. A chaplain was also seen at the site.

'External violence'

Police said the victims' injuries indicated "intense external violence."

Local newspaper Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten reported the victims were patients at the clinic.

The Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that the crime took place at a unit where people with mental development issues are treated for muscle and skeletal illnesses.

The Oberlin Clinic is a specialist orthopedic hospital with some 160 beds and 300 staff. In a statement published on its website, the organization said: "All our concern and sympathy goes to the relatives of those concerned."

Dietmar Woidke, state premier of Brandenburg, where Potsdam is located, said he was "shocked."

"My thoughts go to the victims and my condolences to the relatives," he told broadcaster RBB.

 

sri/dj (AP, Reuters, dpa)