Munich Shooting Video Shows Gunman Opening Fire On Civilians; Multiple Deaths Reported At German Mall

A video posted on social media soon went viral after news broke of a shooting at a Munich shopping center. The footage captured the terror caused by the deadly shooting spree.

The shooting occurred Friday afternoon at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum shopping mall in Munich, Germany. Witnesses have reported as many as three shooters were involved and news reports claimed "several" casualties, but was not any immediate, official confirmation of the scope of the tragedy. A video shows a man in a black shirt, evidently one of the alleged gunman involved in the shopping center shooting spree, opening fire on fleeing civilians.

The video, orignally posted by Twitter user Roeland Roovers, shows the gunman walking slowly outside of a McDonald's restaurant and then standing still by the side of the road for a moment. Suddenly, the unidentified man pulled a handgun out and opens fire, seemingly randomly, at a group of nearby civilians. They then began fleeing frantically, screaming in terror.

The person filming the video dropped his or her arm while running to take cover, leaving the rest of the incident unseen to viewers beyond the initial gunshots. No one can be seen getting shot in the video, but frightened screams can be heard until the end of the 32-second clip.

Though the motivations for the shooting remain unclear, many on social media are already blaming Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's lenient refugee policies for the tragedy. The acceptance of nearly 1 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees in recent years has been a fierce topic of debate in Germany in the wake of a spate of deadly terror attacks across Europe attributed to the Islamic State terror group, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.

Police in Munich tweeted that people should avoid public places while they investigate the shooting. At least one suspect is reportedly still on the loose and no arrests had been made.