Image
© ReutersPolice gather at a local sports ground where an eighth-grader is hiding in Memmingen
German police arrested an armed 14-year-old boy after he opened fire in his school with a handgun, threatening to "shoot them all".

The boy was arrested in the Bavarian town of Memmingen following a stand-off with dozens of heavily armed police officers during which he fired at least 20 shots and threatened to shoot himself.

He had earlier caused panic at his school when he produced two pistols, telling one boy that if anything bothered him today he would "shoot them all". He also threatened a teacher and fired a shot into the ground.

As news of the gunman spread through the school around 280 teachers and pupils locked themselves in classrooms, and waited for the police.

The incident triggered painful memories of the 2009 Winnenden massacre in Germany when 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer shot 16 children dead at his old school before turning his gun on himself.

"The school public-address first told us not to leave our classrooms, and then we got a message to lock the doors," a schoolboy called Dennis told the newspaper Bild. "We went over to the window and saw police officers in body armour, and a helicopter circling overhead. Nobody knew what was happening, and some of us were afraid." The 14-year-old, who has not been named, fled to a local sports ground where he was surrounded by antiterrorist units of the German police.

A police spokesman said the boy fired at least 20 shots during the stand-off but none of them "were aimed at the police" so officers refrained from opening fire.

The boys' motives remain unclear but the German press cited sources in the police that claimed he had just broken up with his girlfriend. It appears he got the firearms from his father, who is a member of a local shooting club.

Following his arrest authorities said the boy had been arrested and was undergoing a psychological examination.