Two Killed at School Near Berlin in What Police Call a Domestic Violence Incident

Two people were killed at a private school in Gosen-Neu Zittau, near Berlin, in what Brandenburg state police have described as a domestic violence incident.

Officers arrested a 19-year-old German man they called the prime suspect. Police said the killings were not a mass shooting, without specifying the weapon used. It is not known whether the suspect attended the Docemus school.

The victims

One of those killed was an 18-year-old female secondary school student. The second was a 30-year-old man who died after trying to intervene, according to local media. The suspect is believed to be the student's former boyfriend, Maz Online reported.

The response

Ulrike Liedtke, speaker of Brandenburg's regional parliament, called the killing a "cowardly femicide."

"The fact that we once again had to witness deadly violence against a woman fills me with deep sorrow and anger," she said. "I am shaken that a citizen who showed moral courage and wanted to help also lost his life in this terrible act."

State premier Dietmar Woidke described it as an "unimaginable act of violence."

The framing used by officials is deliberate. Germany has recorded a persistent number of killings of women by partners and former partners each year, and the term femicide has been adopted by politicians and campaigners specifically to resist categorising such deaths as isolated private tragedies. The investigation continues.