Woman kills patient in hospital shooting

A WOMAN opened fire at a German hospital last night, killing a patient and injuring several others before police shot her dead.

A child was among the injured at the St Elisabeth Hospital in the town of Lrrach in Baden-Wuerttemberg - not far from the site of the Winnenden massacre in March last year, when teenage gunman Tim Kretschmer shot dead 15 people with his father's handgun before taking his own life.

According to the local Badische Zeitung newspaper there was a "loud explosion" at about 6pm local time in a hospital building. Photographs showed smoke pouring from the building.

Fire fighters were initially unable to tackle the blaze, as they heard shorts and took cover.

"We were playing with the children in the garden when there was a huge explosion that shook the house," said Ayed Centinier, who lives in the apartment block next door.

There was no immediate indication about a motive, nor whether the woman was a patient at the hospital.