According to reports, a 35-year-old man, identified only as Philipp F. in line with German privacy rules, stormed the service at his former congregation, killing six people before taking his own life after police arrived on the scene.

This horrific act of violence has resulted in eight people being wounded, four of whom are seriously injured.

However, perhaps the most gut-wrenching news coming out of this attack is that a woman who was 28 weeks pregnant lost her baby due to the injuries she sustained.

The motive behind the attack remains unknown, and authorities are currently focusing their investigation on it.

However, the police acknowledged that they received an anonymous tip recently claiming that the man had particular anger toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and might be psychologically unfit to own a gun.

Despite these warning signs, the authorities had found no grounds to take away his weapon when they visited him in January.

The bottom line is that an anonymous tip in which someone says they’re worried a person might have a psychological illness isn’t in itself a basis for such measures; Hamburg police chief Ralf Martin Meyer said.

Chancellor Scholz describes this shooting as “a brutal act of violence.” The world must come together to ensure that such events never happen again, and that we as a society work towards identifying the warning signs before it is too late.