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Police say teen Munich shooter researched mass shootings

Investigators found no link to the Islamic State militant group

By Daniel Uria
Special police forces stand by the entrance to a subway station following shootings at a shopping mall earlier on July 22, 2016, in Munich, Germany. Police said an 18-year-old dual German-Iranian national, born in Munich, carried out the shooting killing 9 people and injuring 27 more before he killed himself.
 Photo by Michael Trammer/ UPI
1 of 4 | Special police forces stand by the entrance to a subway station following shootings at a shopping mall earlier on July 22, 2016, in Munich, Germany. Police said an 18-year-old dual German-Iranian national, born in Munich, carried out the shooting killing 9 people and injuring 27 more before he killed himself. Photo by Michael Trammer/ UPI | License Photo

MUNICH, Germany, July 23 (UPI) -- Police in Germany said an 18-year-old shooter who killed 10 people including himself at a mall in Munich had researched mass shootings.

According to the BBC, police said the shooter, whose body was found a half mile away from Olympia-Einkaufszentrum mall following a manhunt, had been in psychiatric care, under treatment for depression. Investigators, in a search of his home, found written material on mass shootings.

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Police are also investigating whether the gunman, identified as German-Iranian, posed as a woman on Facebook to lure victims to the McDonald's restaurant inside the mall where the shooting began.

The 18-year-old gunman, whose name has not been released, carried out the shooting in the mall at around 6 p.m., killing 9 people and injuring 27 before he killed himself, authorities said

Police said he was a dual German-Iranian national, born in Munich, and video of the shooting shows him dressed in all black and at one point shouting "I'm German."

He was found armed with 300 bullets and a 9-mm Glock 17 pistol with the serial number scratched off, which police said may indicate the gun was obtained illegally, according to CNN.

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Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae said there was an obvious link between the Munich shooting and far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik's massacre of 77 people in Norway, which took place on the same day in 2011.

No suicide note was found on the body, and police said there were no references to religion or potential links to the Islamic State found in the documents recovered from the gunman's home.

Andrae said the gunman was "not connected with refugees at all" and that investigators were continuing to look into his mental condition.

The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for a knife attack on a German train, carried out by a teenage Afghan asylum seeker on Monday.

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