AKIPRESS.COM - A gunman opened fire outside a shopping mall in Munich late on Friday afternoon, killing nine people, wounding 21 and sending Germany’s third-largest city into lockdown as the police scrambled to find what they initially thought were as many as three assailants, The New York Times reports.

By early Saturday, the authorities said the attack was probably the work of a single gunman, an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent who they said held both German and Iranian citizenship.

The body of the presumed gunman, whose name was not immediately made public, was found less than a mile from the mall with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

During a news conference early Saturday, Hubertus Andrä, the chief of the Munich police, said it was unclear what had motivated the assailant, who lived in the city for more than two years and had no police record. He said the authorities were not certain that the rampage was a terrorist attack.

“The events of last night and tonight make us sad, speechless, and in particular right now, our thoughts are with the victims,” Chief Andrä said.

Three of the wounded were in critical condition, officials said.