Five people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Two people were arrested, including the suspected shooter.

Other people were wounded, police said, but they did not give a figure.

Police said the shooting took place in the facility on Dankersstrasse, a street south of the town centre. That facility includes temporary accommodation for pregnant women or young mothers with children.

There was no danger to the public, police said. Video footage after the shooting showed a large police presence, along with other emergency service personnel and several ambulances on a residential street.

Two suspects were arrested, one of whom is believed to have fired the shots. Police said they were working to establish the background to the shooting and what exactly happened.

Vitali Mertens, who lives across the street from the scene, said he heard gunshots and "the whole area was cordoned off right away." He added that "the police sent me away".

Germany's gun laws are more restrictive than those in the United States, and mass shootings are rare but not unheard-of.

Stade has about 50,000 inhabitants and is located about 40 km from Hamburg.

Mass shootings are relatively rare in Germany, especially when compared to the United States, but it has seen a spate of high-profile cases.

In 2023, a gunman in Hamburg shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah's Witness worship hall. In 2016, an 18-year-old German-Iranian man who was obsessed with mass killings killed at least nine people in Munich.