confirmation on casualties. but we are hearing from police officials, they are willing to say they believe there will be multiple deaths. our coverage of this breaking news story is going to continue right now on "the real story." stay with us. we begin with a fox news alert from munich, germany, where a massive manhunt is under way after a deadly shooting at a shopping center there. hello, everyone, i'm sandra smith. police have yet to comment specifically on the number of casualties but say they expect, quote, multiple dead. police say the attack started at a fast food restaurant in the mall. now german special force police have arrived at the scene, we're told, and workers are trapped there inside. and they are speaking to local media, giving some color as to what is happening inside. they are still hiding out from the shooter or shooters. it is yet to be confirmed how many are involved. what we are learning from our

foreign correspondent, kitty logan, one or two may be killed. we're going to be talking to her in just a second. i'll remind you, this is a friday evening, it's a shopping center. h&m is one of the main stores there. it is a large shopping center and a popular one. right now would be closing time, 8:00 p.m. local time, this mall would be closing. staff and shoppers are right now stuck inside as we continue to await more reports on what is happening there. cliff may is ceo and president of the foundation for the defense of democracies. cliff, there's two levels to this shopping center, 135 shops. it's been around quite some time, since 1972. as we continue to wait and hear more on possible casualties and any motive of the shooter, what do you make of the situation? >> i think we want to be cautious obviously at this point. we don't know who did it, we don't know the motives.

we don't know whether there was tied to islamic fundamentalism and jihadism and islamism. but that's one of the fears. we're in the days after nice, where a truck was used to murder 84 people. we had the other day on a train in germany, someone using an axe and knives to kill people. we're going into an era of low tech terrorism which will be more frequent and make everybody very nervous about where they go and what they do. terrorism is meant to terrify. again, we don't want to be premature. this could be workplace violence, it could be anything. it's certainly a concern that this is yet again another instance of this kind of low tech islamism and jihadism. >> and you heard in the last hour that there are other reports coming in from other places in the city there. those are unconfirmed reports. but what we do know is that the munich transportation authorities have halted service

on multiple train, tram, and bus lines after this shooting. law enforcement officers are responding to the scene in large numbers. witnesses, beyond what we have as far as confirmed reports, witnesses have said that there are multiple shooters involved. some of them have said there were up to three shooters involved. there are no arrests yet. this all just coming into our newsroom now. and remember, a big part -- and by the way, they are advised to seek shelter. anybody who is in that mall around that scene right now, because these shooters are on the loose. we are waiting to hear more from the munich police, who we do know are involved and on the ground there. no reports of a hostage situation. but we do know there are still many shoppers inside of that mall where those shootings took place, shooting or shootings. this all started to unfold, by the way, just before the 1:00 eastern time hour, just over an

hour ago. and we were told, authorities in munich told us there were reports of a shot fired inside of that mall. but we're getting different accounts from witnesses on the ground. one witness, an employee at the mall, told local television there, according to reuters, many shots were fired. i can't say how many, but it's been a lot. so cliff, of course we know that there are authorities rushing to the scene there. obviously at this point they are trying to get any of the injured out of that building where they can seek treatment. >> yes, they're going to try to contain it, they're going to try to minimize the number of deaths and injuries, obviously. as you point out, these are unconfirmed reports. but if it's more than one shooter, if this was a coordinated attack, that is more distressing. we had originally heard that in nice it was one man with what people like to call a lone wolf, i think that term is somewhat imprecise. now we know there were

accomplices as well. it raises the question what is the european and american strategy and policy to deal with this sort of thing, what are we doing to deal with jihadism and its various forms, and islamism as well. we had a coup attempt in turkey and radicalism taking hold and destroying what had been the only muslim democracy. we need to understand that there are those within the islamic world fighting a war against us and we're kind of dithering without any real strategy and just responding as best we can when these attacks occur. >> as you see, we're running on the bottom of the screen, german police report there are multiple people dead in the wake of these shootings. witnesses reporting three different people were involved on the scene there with guns. still a lot of information unknown. but what we do know is the

target at the very least, cliff. as we look at images coming out of munich of this shopping center, i gave you some of the details about that, two levels, 135 shops, one of the main shopping stores there is an h&m, which is really frequented by a lot of younger shoppers. in this is one of the those easy targets, those soft targets, if you will. can you give us some information as far as what we have been seeing, attacks that are in line with terrorist attacks, and what we're seeing on the ground there about these soft targets and what we're learning now? >> well, just as we're seeing more low tech terrorism, not the kind of well-orchestrated and very carefully planned things we saw on 9/11, we're seeing somebody coming in and using a truck, a knife, an axe, a handgun, or some other kind of weapon. we're also seeing them take on targets that are not military installations, that are not hugely symbolic. but terrorists want you to feel

uncomfortable, unsafe anywhere you are, at any time. part of this is also, i would argue that even after 9/11, we made a mistake in not insisting to the world that whatever your grievance, whatever your cause, you do not murder other people's children or if you do, you will lose any possible support among any kind of civilized and didn't even people. instead we have reuters, for example, steven jukes, the global editor, saying one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. so these people can say we're freedom fighters as we go into a clothing store and shoot holes in millennials. we should reject those values, these are people fighting for terrible things and trying to bring down our civilization. it's not simply violent extremism. >> we still don't know the motive of the shooter at this moment. munich police say they have not located the suspects, no arrests have been made. but they are urging everyone in and around this area to stay home, don't leave your house.

they've shut down public transportation in munich. and their quote, a rough translation, we currently do not know where the offenders are, avoid public places. kitty logan is following the breaking news live for us from london right now. kitty, what are you learning? >> reporter: well, the munich police have since posted a statement to their facebook page in the last few minutes, since we recently spoke to them. what is interesting to note is, as you've already mentioned, is that witnesses are reporting three different people with weapons. now, obviously this can't be confirmed at this stage. there could be confusion, it could be people they're seeing more people than they really are. but it's interesting to note police do seem to think there are more than one suspect on the loose and they emphasize right now they do not know where that suspect or suspects are and they're deploying all available police units to the area.

in this statement they give a little bit more detail. they say they had first reports at ten to 6:00 local time. this busy shopping mall would have been open until 8:00 p.m., full of shoppers at that time. they emphasize, as you say, they do not yet know who might be behind this. they're putting all resources into it but at the moment no suspect or anyone connected to the suspect has been detained. they do also confirm their statement that they cannot give exact details of the number of casualties. a police spokeswoman who i spoke to in the last half hour said there were several dead and injured and the bavarian minister has said there are three dead. this is obviously an extremely fluid situation and no doubt we'll be getting a lot more details in the minutes and hours to come. >> kitty logan, thank you. we want to bring in jillian turner and draw on your experience and knowledge in this area and recent terror attacks, as we, again, do not have any confirmation of the motive in

this attack. there have been reports of multiple shots fired inside of the shopping center in munich. munich police confirming that the shooter or shooters, some witnesses saying they saw up to three shooters present at that shopping center. and they're also telling people to stay home right now. we do know there are shoppers and staff in that shopping center. jillian, as you watch this, what are your thoughts? >> hi, sandra. this is a worst case scenario for the german government at this point, exactly the kind of lockdown chaos scene that chancellor merkel has been warning about and has been scared about. so far the dynamics of this are looking a lot like they did in paris and brussels. the scale isn't entirely known. we don't know how many are dead or wounded. again, it's really a worst case scenario, coming on the heels of another attack earlier this week on a soft target perpetrated by

a young afghan man you are talking about. >> we're looking at new live pictures coming in from sky tv. it does show authorities he spo people away from the shopping center, police on the run. there may be more than one gunman involved in this attack, up to threeso some witnesses sa they saw. shots were heard fired over an hour ago, around the 8:00 p.m. hour there when this mall would normally be closing. we do know there are shoppers, stand still in this munich shopping center. the german police say they are at the scene.

german special forces as well, as you can see, are on the scene at this munich mall. this is a manhunt under way, gillian, as we look at these live pictures come in. up to -- okay. so social media plays a big part. right now we are being told munich police are saying stop sharing any live feed or pictures from the scene, because clearly if you go on twitter or facebook right now there is a lot of information being exchanged. munich police are saying stop, do not continue to share any live feed, any videos, any still pictures from the scene there, which are happening on facebook and twitter right now. and this is as the suspects are at large, no arrests have been made. all we have to go off of are the reports that the munich police said that they received. they received reports of a gunshot at that munich shopping center, just before the 1:00 p.m. eastern time, eastern hour here. witnesses say that they heard

multiple shots in some instances. kitty logan, our reporter, our foreign correspondent, said there are at least one or two people killed in this situation. it could be up to three at this point. but again, a lot of that is just still unknown and a lot of unconfirmed reports flowing in at this hour. look at this, these are live pictures. these are people escaping that -- okay. so these just came in moments ago. these are families that were shopping in the shopping center there, and they are, thankfully, getting let out of the building. we know that a lot of the staff at various stores said that people were running into their stores when they heard the gunshots. thankfully we are seeing some people were getting out of the building. we still do not know the situation inside of that shopping center, as you do continue to see authorities moving into the location there. but crowds of people.

okay. unconfirmed reports of more violence in the city center now. so as we started off this hour, you heard kitty logan said there were a lot of unconfirmed reports, sometimes in these situations it gets todchaotic a people say they see or hear things. the main city train station, this just coming in, is being evacuated as we speak. new tweets coming in from the munich police department just moments ago. please don't take any photos. this was them putting out the message, let's not let anybody know what's going on and what we see. but authorities are moving in on the scene. now we're told that the main train station is being shut down. so there could be a situation happening outside of the shopping center. so we're waiting to see if we can see any confirmed reports coming in there. we do want to know if our president and the white house has received any updates.

let's go to kevin corke, live at the white house. has the president been briefed? >> reporter: he certainly has been briefed on the situation. ironically, as this was beginning to unfold, secretary of homeland security jeh johnson was in the east room. in fact we were in the midst of the press conference with the president of mexico shortly thereafter. both gentlemen were apprised of the statement. we have a statement from the white house and we got this from matthew dean, our justice department producer. he says jeh johnson has been made aware of the situation and briefed as it continues to unfold. he is en route to philadelphia to inspect security operations in advance of the dnc. and i share that for a couple of reasons. obviously a circumstance like this, when we're talking about soft target terrorism, is a major concern for the white house and for the entire administration. keep in mind, law enforcement here in the states has been very active in trying to prevent similar circumstances that we've seen unfortunately play out in

paris and in munich and madrid and all over the globe from happening here in the u.s. that's of paramount importance as we look forward to the dnc which of course is coming up next week in philadelphia. the white house has made us aware that the president has been briefed. as we get more information i'll pass it along to you. back to you. >> we'll get back to you, kevin, if you have fillinganything els. the president has been briefed on the situation in munich. the munich police are tweeting that there are unconfirmed reports of more violence in the city, outside of the shopping center at which the gun fire shots were reported, just over an hour ago. more possible gunfire in the city center is what the munich police are tweeting out. they say the situation there is unclear and they are urging all citizens to please avoid public areas and anybody who is at any of these scenes, avoid posting videos or pictures to facebook or twitter or any other social

media venues. our guest is a former secret service agent for president obama and global security consultant. dan, what do you make of this? >> it's a tragedy, the global war happening in shopping malls and stadiums. terrorists figured out a long time ago they didn't need a 9/11 attack and all the logistics and money to pull that off. all they need is to get explosives from the black market and pull off chaos and destruction. it's sad to watch. >> we've learned the president has been briefed on the situation. dan, do you expect us to take security measures or should we see changes to our security or threat level here in the wake of yet another attack, again, we don't know the motive, but as we see pictures like this continuing to unfold across the globe? >> we'll probably see heightened

alert level at home and airports and other targets like that. unfortunately, sandra, the targets these people are targeting are not just things like airports, which can be hard targets. they're soft targets as well. really, if the terror alert is heightened on the dhs or the president, what does that do for a local baker in a shopping mall or somebody who has a bakery or clothing store? the answer is there's very little we can do to prevent if we don't take an umbrella view and enact a marshall-plan-like effort. >> you talk about the target, in particular this munich shopping center. it's a couple of different levels, a very popular place in the city to shop. it's bottom 135 shops, many of them trendy clothing stores, h&m one of them. all right. this just coming into our newsroom. german police are suspecting

terror in this incident. the authorities are asking people to stay home, don't leave your house. all right. unconfirmed reports of more violence, the police are reporting. and the u.s. consulate is advising people to shelter in place. and if you hear me taking pauses it's because this is just coming into our newsroom. the u.s. consulate, we strongly advise all to shelter in place. munich police are reporting multiple shooting incidents in the city. so munich police are not only responding to the gunfire that was heard at the munich shopping center where witnesses saw shooters, heard gunfire, but now they're shutting down the city's main train station. they have shut down all public transportation in and around that city. dan, this is a quickly developing situation as we are told, up to three shooters are

on the run. what does this look like as far as the authorities handling this immense of a situation in that city? >> yeah, this is very difficult to stop. it reminds me, again, tragically, the mumbai, where it took hours to stop what were essentially less than ten gunmen from taking over and stopping the actions of an entire city at one time. you know, we're really going to have to work on our intelligence operations in this country. i remember being a secret service answering thgent, and as that are developed between local, state, and federal, and within those entities, even within the federal government, the secret service can't talk to the fbi. we can't continue to function like this. if we're not more nimble and flexible in this new global world war, again, being fought in shopping malls, if we're not more nimble, you're going to see more of this and more of this and more of this until the american people get if he hfed demand change. >> i want to bring everything

full circle here, where we are at 2:20 p.m. eastern time. the first reports that munich police stated, they received the first reports of gunfire at this munich shopping center just before 1:00 p.m. eastern time. you're talking about shooters after that occurred on the loose for nearly an hour and a half. munich police have confirmed it's up to three shooters. they are going off of what they are told from witnesses on the scene at that shopping center. some say they saw three active shooters. some say they heard multiple, some say many gunshots. we have not yet scene anybody being taken out of that shopping center. and dan, you're still here with us, this is the situation that is becoming all too familiar with us. the timing, ahead of a weekend, on a friday afternoon we're getting these reports coming in. >> yeah, and right now the

german police are going to be overwhelmed, there's no doubt about it. think of what happened after the boston bombing attack, the tsarnaev brothers. you remember how long it took them to find that one brother who was hiding in a boat in the backyard. imagine if this is four or five or even six attackers, and we don't know that, clearly it seems there are multiple shooters. this could be a very prolonged, grid, block by block search to find and neutralize these terrorists right now, what's being called a terrific. this bad takethis could take a very long time. >> what can we do about these so-called soft targets, a shopping mall? we don't have to go through a secured zone to enter a target mall. these seem to be the target of these terrorists. the latest coming from the munich police, this is being treated as a terrorist attack at this moment. >> yes. sadly there's really no easy answer for this. these terrorists engaged in

these soft target terror attacks are interested in one thing. they're interested that massacre. they're not interested in a hostage negotiation. they're not interested in the money in your cash register. they don't care about the merchandise on your shelves. how do you fight back against that? the only way to do that is to implement an equal amount of force through trained, armed security. sandra, i know that's not a convenient answer for a lot of people out there, and it brings in the politics of gun control, and i understand that. but it's the only reasonable answer. if a man comes into your store shooting, and he's determined on killing everybody, what are you going to do, throw him a pack of gum and ask him to leave? at this point we have to look at an entire reorganization of the entire police department. >> dan, the munich police are urging not only to stay home if you are at home right now, but if you are at or near any of these scenes were violence is unfolding, no videos or pictures of police force, "help not the

perpetrators." can you explain why this is an urgency, for them to tell people not to post pictures or video on social media? >> yeah, sure, absolutely. i think after the pulse nightclub attack in orlando, what police departments and law enforcement entities found out was that the attacker inside the club was monitoring social media. not only for the attention -- we're joining sky news in progress. sky news is covering what appears to be a terrorist attack in munich, germany. listen. >> a very, very difficult thing to confront. >> all the emphasis has been whether this could be an isis attack. of course there are other groups in germany who might pose a security risk of this type. >> yeah, it's too early to say this is an i.s. attack, even if it's a jihadist attack, it doesn't mean it's i.s.

it could be al qaeda. it's not so long ago that al qaeda carried out the attacks in paris. al qaeda is certainly still an organization that has capability to carry out attacks abroad, albeit not on the same scale as i.s. there are other possible perpetrators, non-jihadist actors, some sort of domestic group with a domestic grievance. so there are all sorts of possibilities. and it is very early stage. but it seems that the most likely explanation is that it's i.s. >> okay. thank you for joining us on sky news. and just to remind you, what you're looking at here, pictures of ongoing police operation in munich tonight, reports of shootings at three location across the city, at least three gunmen involved, according to local police there, police there trying to evacuate the shopping center and all public transport has been shut down as they

tackle this ongoing situation. let's talk to former counterterrorism officer dr. dave lowe. dr. lowe, good evening to you. i understand you're familiar with the layout of this shopping center where the first attack seems to have occurred. >> yes, that's right. it's like most shopping centers where you have a couple of floors. you expect the main path of shops to be there. this is unfortunately very much like the mall siege in kenya a few years ago which was carried out by a group, al shabaab. and, you know, it shows you once again, let's pick a soft target, let's look at people going about their ordinary business and pick that target. i think this is an issue we have to look at. i agree with your previous caller there, that, you know, we have to be open minded, who is

responsible for this. but it does look, and i agree with him, it's looking like an islamic state type of attack. it certainly fits in with -- >> shepard smith on the fox news desk in new york. it appears, as we turn down the volume on sky news, it appears what we're witnessing now is a broad attack on munich, germany. you're watching pictures from our sister network sky news in the united kingdom and across europe. what we know is there's been an attack at a mall. the local media in germany are reporting at least six people have been killed in the mall shooting there. we have word from authorities of multiple shooters. and now we have word of possible additional attacks at other areas across munich. at least two areas, they're being specific about now. a train station and another location.

and there are police activities under way at multiple locations across munich. to be perfectly clear, we do not know who is responsible for these attacks. the germany authorities are treating this as a terrorist attack. is it isis? it is impossible to know. are others in danger at this point? it would appear they are. for german authorities have now asked for all people in and around munich to shelter in place. the u.s. state department has sent out a similar order. they're trying to get all people off the street. i'm about to show you the latest video that we have from the mall. it is dramatic video. parents at home, grandparents at home with children now on summer break, i'm going to give you a few seconds. this may not be something you want your children to see. but it's such an important part of this now developing story, 8:30 at night in munich, that i'm about to play it. i'll play it in the next five seconds now, because we want you to know what we know about

what's happening. and here it is. [ gunshots ] that's the video from the shopping mall. it will play again now for you, and then we'll move on. the great concern now is how widespread is this attack. we know that it happened at the mall. the mall would normally be shutting down at this time of day. we've asked people in and around the mall to, again, shelter in place as authorities are working to find out how many gunmen

there are, if they know now, they haven't relayed that information to us. i'll report to you exactly what we know from authorities. that is they believe there are multiple gunmen at this mall and they're investigating what is believed to be possibly multiple attacks in and around the city of munich. tensions have certainly been high. we now know from local -- from the local, which is a german news source which we trust, saying authorities confirm three deaths. this was a short time ago, we're up to six in munich, in which three attackers appear to have been involved. police are warning everyone there to stay indoors. now they've updated it to six people killed in what's being described locally as a shooting rampage at this shopping center. they're tweeting in english now, more, quoting, unconfirmed reports of more violence and gunfire in city center.

there is a large train center in city center in munich where there are reports of violence as well. they have not been more specific than that. and as a result, we're not going to be more specific. is it possible that in the heat of the moment, with tensions very high, that people would be very afraid and think something else has happened when it hasn't? it certainly is. we know from attacks that have happened here in the united states, specifically on 9/11, there were multiple reports of multiple different incidents which turned out not to be true. the fact is we're in the very early stages of what is becoming a broadening investigation. and apparently a terrorist attack on the city of munich. police are now asking people not to take photos of the operation which could help the fugitives. therefore the video we're showing is video from a short time ago. these are not live pictures. they're tweeting, again, please don't take photos of the police action in order to avoid any helpful information for the suspects. they're saying specifically live

pictures. it's lost in the translation, but you understand what they mean, and it's easy to understand why they're saying it. police from are giving more details on the attack in facebook. here in the -- on the news desk we're monitoring the hashtag offenetuer, that's the hashtag they're monitoring, that's being used to offer shelter to those who can't get home, because all transportation in the city center has been stopped and police are advised to avoid public places. they're even advising authorities now to avoid public places. it is sounding like -- i can't confirm to you what has happened but i can report to you that munich officials believe this is

now a larger-than-one-location attack. they're fully working under the belief that this is happening both in the city center in munich and not too far away, in this very large shopping mall. the interior minister has told a local newspaper that at the time three were dead and several injured. now they've confirmed six. and quoting authorities, a police spokesperson, we're trying to bring this situation under control, we don't have an indication as to where the assailants have gone. so it would appear that this attack happened inside the mall. when the authorities arrived, there was difficulty finding the suspects. there was more shooting, we're told, in the early going. and now there seems to be a question about whether the shooters are. is it possible that the shooters went from that mall to another location? it is, because the first reports came exclusively from the shopping mall. we now have confirmed by authorities that six people are dead there. and then minutes later, some

many minutes later, 20 to 30 minutes later, we began to get these reports of violence in city center. is it possible that the gunmen went from one location to another? it is. is it possible that there are multise multiple sets of gunmen? that's also possible. and it's certainly possible that fear escalated into some degree of panic and we can hope at this moment that this has not spread. the truth is, at this moment we can't know. several, as many of six now confirmed dead, that's at the shopping mall. new information, off-duty doctors and nurses have been brought to hospitals now or told to go to hospitals in munich. there is an alarm out that they have in munich in city center for a mass attack. and this sort of alert that goes out in the city, much as in new york or in any major city in the united states, should we come

under attack, there are civil defense warnings, there are tweets that go out and facebook messages that go out. in some cases there are sirens which blare. in all cases they interrupt television programming to tell people that there is an attack, should such an unthinkable occurrence happen. that alarm has been sounded now in english for what they call when translated into english a mass attack. so a mass attack is the status of the casualty report from munich. there is a report as well that the main train station has now been evacuated while public transportation has been completed stopped throughout munich. so the public transportation system, the buses, the subways, everything has been shut down in munich. this is similar to what happened in new york city on the attacks of 9/11 out of an abundance of caution, transportation systems are shut down. here in new york, bridges and

tunnels were eventually closed as well, so that if we were under attack, an attack but which we didn't have enough knowledge, the attackers wouldn't be able to move in and out. and just this action of shutting down transportation systems in a major metropolitan city like munich, that causes people to have extreme understand and sometimes they report things that simply eventually turn out not to be true. but at this point we can do nothing but take the word of those onsite and report to you that authorities believe there is still great danger, even at this moment. the suspects are said to be on the run. and six people are confirmed dead. our understanding of things is, many, many more are reported to be injured. now, sometimes in these events people are injured in an effort to imagine one person falls down and people begin to fall on one another. i'm not saying that's happened, i'm telling you that it may be

that all of the victims are not victims of a shooting. but some could be victims of the attempt to escape. the fact is we don't know. and along with you at least here in the early going, again, it's been going on for about an hour now, but listen, sky news is showing the same video we've had and they've blown it up a little. listen. [ gunshots ] >> you're looking there at pictures of the ongoing police operation, these are pictures we're getting from munich. people there are taking the streets, once the public transport has been shut down.

we understand from security forces there were at least two shooters involved. we can bring in our security expert, sam kiley, here with me in the studio. >> while they go to analysis, i want to give you new eyewitness reports which have gone to the bbc quoting a man named victor wood, a british witness who actually lives in munich and spoke in english to the bbc, i'm quoting now. i was leaving the shopping center from the side entrance and as we were about to get into the subway system we heard shootings. we couldn't see where it was coming from. there was a building in between us. when i got to the subway system a couple of minutes later, we saw the police cars and realized what had happened. the shopping center is an l-shape. it was quite busy. there were a lot of people there, again quoting this british witness in munich. we were leaving from the side exists. s. exits. it was hard to see what was going on on.

we saw somebody shooting a handgun. if we can go to that video again, you see someone coming out of the mcdonalds with what looks like a handgun. watch here. [ gunshots ] >> there it is. continuing with the witness's statement, we didn't hear screaming but -- okay. it took about four or five minutes for police to arrive, i would say. we managed to get onto one of the last trains before they closed down the transport system and now the freeze frame at the end there, well, you know, you can see for yourself. before i came out to germany i had been in the air force, this is the british citizen again, so i'm used to the sound of gunshots, it was definitely shooting. you don't hear that kind of

sound in the city. no one expects something like this to happen in their front garden. i think munich is well-equipped to handle it. police presence is fairly although key, the police have weapons but you don't see them walking around with machine guns. certainly the situation on the ground in munich has changed considerably. the entirety of the transportation system has shut down and we're waiting for word from authorities. a munich police spokesman has just said witnesses saw three shooters with long rifles. three shooters with long rifles, according to the munich police spokesman. there is an attack under way now in the city of munich. at least six people have been murdered. the attackers are, to the best of our knowledge, on the loose. an attack alert has gone out across munich. concerns now about city center. these are videos that were taken by -- i'm sorry, this is tape

again. we're not showing live pictures at the request -- not that people would be watching fox news channel in munich at this hour, certainly, but on the off chance that they are, for those of you who are link to us on sirius xm and on our other channels where you don't get video, the video we've been showing clearly depicts a man with a help coming out of an mcdonalds which is attached to a very large l-shaped shopping mall. there are reports there, the video itself doesn't show great chaos, i would say, but the person who is carrying what appears to be an iphone, and it's in the up and down position, the portrait position, and clearly has a shot, has a picture of one of the gunmen, live pictures i'm watching on other feeds as the authorities are moving in in great numbers. transportation is shut down. they've told people, do not go in your cars, do not walk on the streets, go into your home, lock your doors and shelter in place.

we have reports from a hotel, i believe, which is very nearby this mall. and these reports came to our sister network sky news in the uk. the hotel isn't letting anyone in or out. people are very confused. of course everyone is watching television. streets have gone from bump eero bumper traffic on a friday night at quarter to 9:00 now in munich to hardly any vehicles in a short time. however, a person can spot a cafe down the street where people are still sitting outside having a beer, apparently completely unaware. again, the best video we have to help us tell this story, this is a still shot from there. let's listen as sky news discusses this in the uk. >> -- refugees coming into the country. but pause for a moment. today is also the anniversary of the attack in oslo. >> yes, of course. >> this was an attack perpetrated against the whole

notion of multiculturalism. similar ideological roots as the islamic state. >> they've gone to analysis. because we have new video, i want to take you to that. this new video we're about to show is -- i believe it's a parking garage, is that right? a person on top of a parking garage. you'll see a man pacing. at the end of this video, before whoever is recording it stops recording it, a shot is fired. here, watch. [ speaking foreign language ] [ gunshot ] so we've taken this video from the internet. we have matched the location, the geotracking of it matches to

the shopping center. and we believe at this point that video is authentic, there's no reason for us to believe it wouldn't be. since we've geotracked it to that location, that would suggest we have this person on the ground here, you can see with what authorities have described as a long rifle and someone on the roof there, another weapon. authorities have confirmed to us there are three shooters at least at the mall. we have precious little information from city center in munich. and we don't derive anything from that. we don't draw conclusions from that at all, just that there is very little information coming out of there. the authorities have asked people not to take pictures and video of what's going on in realtime. in other words, they're asking people not to periscope. in the early going, there were paeriscope feeds that showed wht was happening. they're now up to speed over there on this video we've been showing. the local newspapers in munich are reporting the following,

video has been circulating on social media which shows a man walking in front of the mcdonald's, pulling out a gun and firing on pedestrians. people in the video can be heard talking to each other in german with one saying "he is coming this way," and then the video -- they say the video has not been authenticated but i should tell you we've located that to the same spot as well. these pictures are coming into us from sky news now, as authorities come in from all over the region. and what they describe as an alarm for a mass attack has been triggered. now, don't let the verbiage there give unnecessary concern, although there is certainly plenty of reason for concern. a mass attack does not necessarily mean there are attackers all over the city. when you have three gunmen in a shopping mall, all with weapons and all firing on innocents with six people dead, that's a mass attack in and of itself under the standards as set forth by the agency which regulates such

a thing, the dissemination of information in germany, that's a mass attack. i'm not trying to tell you this has definitively spread to other parts of the city for i cannot confirm that. i can only tell you that authorities have told scitizens they must evacuate the city center and the train station there and all of the public areas because they believe there is reason to believe that there has been violence at city center at the train station there. it is with remarkable speed that the streets have emptied in munich. as you are no doubt aware, germany has been a target for radical groups. germany has been the site of many immigration issues that have brought the concerns of multiculturalism and a lack of assimilation forefront of the newspapers and the public discourse, to say that germany

has problems along these lines is accurate. now, whether that is related to this is a leap we simply cannot take. pundits might. but at this moment we don't know who is responsible for this. the authorities do not know, to the best of your knowledge, and we do not know. the authorities are working under the assumption that this is a terrorist attack, and who wouldn't? two people seen with long guns murdering six people. authorities have tweeted in german, "we don't know where the shooters are." and because they don't know where the shooters are, there is great concern that the shooters may be in a position to cause more trouble. is it possible that the shooters are -- have been neutralized in some way? i suppose it is. but we don't have that information from authorities. we have exactly the opposite of that. and that is that they are actively seeking at least three

shooters who are believed to have murdered at least six people at a shopping mall. this is a very serious attack that's under way now. the president of the united states has been briefed. the state department is aware. the state department is warning americans in germany to shelter in place, which is the identical warning that we're getting to german citizens by german authorities. we monitor much of europe from our regional newsroom in london. our correspondent benjamin hall, i wonder if you can give us a sense of where authorities are, it seems clear they don't know where the suspects are. >> reporter: we have to be careful here, lots of conflicting reports, as you say. police had asked no one to live stream images or videos, because they are saying they believe that the suspect is still on the run. earlier we heard an eyewitness say that one of these attackers,

when he left mcdonald's was seen running toward the metro station, the subway station. that was an important piece, which suggests why someone may have traveled into the city center. you'll recall brussels, after the attack there, they were criticized for not shutting down the subway systems. they're clearly trying to do that now. they don't know, if someone was able to get on the subway line, they could theoretically be anywhere. what's coming out here, this question, again and again, soft targets, how do you protect against them? this is the largest shopping mall in southeast germany. it doesn't appear to have armed guards there. special forces in the whole area have been mobilized. this initial attack seems to have taken place and the suspects appear to have gotten away somewhere. that's what we're hearing, numbers still uncertain.

german media reporting six have been killed. of course we are hoping that that number doesn't rise. we're unsure at the moment. were they long guns or handguns? we don't know. germany has very strict gun laws. that will raise another the questions of immigration. the attack three days ago on a train where a 17-year-old claiming to be from syria attacked a number of people with an axe and then there was an uproar in germany. they need to take more care on who comes into the country. 1.1 million refugees last year, and we do not know who is responsible for this. we do not have a motive. but friday, which is the day of prayers in the middle east, you often see attacks happen on a friday. rush hour happened at 6:00 p.m. local time. a lot of families out. it fits a lot of the hallmarks and we'll keep bringing you what we hear fromming this side of the pond. >> we appreciate it. and as you mex mentioned, we can't connect all the dots and

can be sure of the number of victims. we are relying on sky news and three other sources, all of whom are reporting exactly the same information. and that is that six are killed and many injured. by many, are we talking a half dozen, a dozen, more? we do not know. the authorities are still inside that mall, and now it is becoming clear to us that there was an initial strike at the mall, you saw the man running out of the mcdonald's. you saw what we believed to be another -- we have not confirmed -- we believe there was another on the top of the parking garage which is part of this olympia shopping center, and we know that as the shooting was underway, the shooting stopped and it was some period of time, a number of minutes -- it wasn't instantous that the subway system was shut down, and the authorities know that the suspects, with their weapons,

escaped somehow, and they seemed to be working under the working theory they skyped -- escaped in the subway system. it is the center of the city, large open spaces and enormous train station, lots and lots of people there had there been the kind of violence we have seen the mall we would anticipate woe be getting information by twitter and other social media sources and from authorities of some sort of specifics and we have not gotten that, which leads us to hope at least -- that's all we can do -- hope that the violence has been contained. that said, authorities are warning that they believe there may have been violence at city center, now, all transportation systems are shut down and they do that in an effort to keep the suspects from being able to go mobile. that is the goal there. of course in doing so, it also causes some degree of chaos among locals, because if you are

not near your home or near a place with which you're familiar, it makes it difficult to do what authorities have said and that is shelter in place. i have new information from a sky news producer, our european counterpart, opened by the same company. this is from munich, sky producer named sam washington just report, he is a few miles away from the olympia shopping center and reports people calmly walking, crying, and driving. he reports lots of sirens and helicopter noise. transno longer appear to be -- trams no longer appear to be running the hotel lobby where he is it now jammed with people who have come in off the street. they're not letting anyone else. so this is the scenario about which i was just speaking. during the attacks of 9/11, people were on the streets trying to figure out, where do i go? what is going to be safe now? and no one had an answer. there was no authority figure saying, here's what to do. so people began just going into

places where they could lock doors and feel safety in numbers and that's what is happening in munich. if you're not near your home in this large city you have nowhere to go. so, in this particular instance, a sky news producer who is reporting we trust completely, says that people have come in off the street, huddled in hotel lobbies and they're locking the door. sam washington is a woman, not a man, and sam washington report mid husband and kids are safely at relative' flat. i'm in a hotel. they're not letting anyone out. several helicopters are searching. she reports, oddly, people are still arriving to check into the hotel looking mystified. a teenager just drove down on empty street, having driving lessons, confusion. so, again, authorities are using a specific hash tag to put out more information. if you want to follow the hash tag you're welcome to do that.

they're using a number of them. had gone had -- #munich for one. i'm look particular one they were -- that's a german language feed. #munich is largely, i'm now told in english. so, we're in one of those situations early in another unthinkable series of eventes. at least three gun men who have attacked at a mall and they believe those three gunmen may be on the move. they tell us those three gunmen have not been captured. more color coming from the scene. these are eye witness reports. a barman at a pub in munich described the scene of growing panic as the news broke of the shots fired at the local shopping center. his name is sam pound. he works as a nearby killon's irish bar and said, i quote, we're getting information from bbc news and twitter feeds and german authorities but hard to know what is valley what is not.

we heard about another attack 400 meeters from us, which is very worrying. something which fox news channel cannot confirm and about which fox news channel has no information. we're in a cellar, so we feel quite safe but in the streets you hear helicopters and sirens. this is an all-too familiar scene. imagine a fleury of activity. i appears they were either in separate locations or one gunman has moved from location to location. is it possible he was at one point on top of the parking garage and then went into the mcdonald's? i suppose it is. i have that information narrowed down as well as you do which is to say i don't. and we wait now for authorities who are extremely busy trying to keep the peace and find the suspects. let's bring in -- well, actually, going to be important we take a commercial break, as sky news in the united kingdom will beginning its primetime

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>> it's 3:00 on the east coast, noon on the west coast, 9:00 p.m. in munich, germany. i'm shepard smith in new york. authorities in munich say there's a terrorist attack underway now in munich. at least six people have been murdered at the shopping mall that you see on your screen. there is now reason to believe, according to authorities, that the suspect escaped. possibly by subway system. possibly by other methods. and have gone to city center, where a mass terror alert is out. they have required citizens now and anyone who is there to shelter in place, go inside buildings. they've just sent out an alert they need doctors and nurses from all around, to converge on o