Last updated Saturday 6am - The gunman who shot dead nine people and injured 16 others at a Munich shopping centre was an 18-year-old German-Iranian man, police believe.

The teenager, who has not been named, is thought to have lived in the city for more than two years before opening fire on shoppers at the Einkaufszentrum shopping centre in the south German city yesterday afternoon.

Any motive behind the attack remains "totally unclear" and police said investigations will be "running on all cylinders" though the night.

Police believe the suspect had acted alone before killing himself and said early reports that there were up to three gunmen were discounted.

The nine victims killed in the massacre included adolescents, while there are children among the 16 people injured. Police said three of the injured people are in a critical condition.

At a press conference early this morning Hubertus Andrae, Munich's police president, said the attack "makes us speechless and our thoughts go out in particular to the victims".

"As a result of the manhunt with a large-scale operation force we have found a male person, who given the current level of intelligence committed suicide," Mr Andrae said.

"On the basis of witness reports and on the basis of CCTV footage we assume that this person is the suspect.

"We currently have no indications that there were further perpetrators involved. The suspect is, according to the current level of intelligence, an 18-year-old Iranian from Munich."

Mr Andrea said inquiries suggested the suspect had lived in the city for more than two years and is not thought to have been known to law enforcement agencies.

"As to the background or motive of the offence it's totally unclear. The investigations will be running on all cylinders through the night," Mr Andrae said.

The suspected was reportedly filmed shouting slogans as he carried out the attack and police have appealed for footage.

They also urged that pictures of the victims were not shared on social media or reproduced.

Police said first received reports of a shots being fired near the Olympic Shopping centre in north Munich at 5.50pm yesterday.

The attacker opened fire in a McDonald's on Hanauer Street with a weapon thought to have been a handgun.

Unverified footage posted on social media showed people running for their lives as a man appeared to open fire on pedestrians.

From there the suspect moved into the shopping centre where the killed and injured were hit.

Armed units flooded the area, with officers in plain clothes seen running through the mall in search for the gunman.

Munich police said they believed the teenager had committed suicide, although Mr Andrae said a post-mortem would show how he died.

He said: "All we can say when the whole crime started, namely at about 5:50 pm and then at about half past nine the suspected perpetrator was found."

Mr Andrae said they had recovered weapons with "relatively large" magazines, although no long-barrelled guns were used.

The gunman was found dead about 1km away from the shopping mall. The incident led to Munich being put on lockdown, with public transportation suspended and several streets blocked.

However Mr Andrae discounted earlier fears that there were up to three gunmen involved in the attack that were triggered by two bystanders fleeing in a car at "considerable speed".

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.