A suspected right-wing extremist shot nine people dead in two shisha bars in an overnight rampage through a German city before, police believe, returning home and killing himself.

Key points: The attackers reportedly targeted shisha bars

The attackers reportedly targeted shisha bars Police say they are still hunting the perpetrators

Police say they are still hunting the perpetrators No motive has yet been given

Federal prosecutors said they had taken charge of investigations into the attack — which happened late on Wednesday in Hanau, east of Frankfurt — due to indications it had an extremist motive.

Newspaper Bild said the suspect had expressed far-right views in a written confession.

In shisha bars, customers share flavoured tobacco from a communal hookah, or water pipe.

In Western countries, they are often owned and operated by people from the Middle East or South Asia, where use of the hookah is a centuries-old tradition.

Forensics police inspect one of the bars, close to Hanau's historic market place. ( AP: Andreas Arnold )

Some of those killed were of Turkish origin, a spokesman for the Turkish presidency said:

"We expect German authorities to show maximum effort to enlighten this case. Racism is a collective cancer," Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.

Police could not immediately be reached for comment on the Bild report.

A police tweet early on Thursday (local time) stated that officers found the dead suspect and another body at the same address in the city of Hanau, where the shooting occurred. No details were released on the other person.

Police gave no details of the suspected gunman or how he died, but said "there are currently no indications of further perpetrators."

They also did not specify why they believed "with a high degree of probability" that the dead man was the assailant.

Earlier, police said that eight people were killed and around five wounded.

Police raised the death toll to nine after one person died of their injuries.

An armed police officer monitors the surrounding streets. ( AP: Brian Roessler )

Poilce said their information suggested the gunman had committed suicide at his home after fleeing in a dark car, but the motive for the attacks is unclear.

Can-Luca Frisenna, whose father and brother run one of the two bars attacked by the gunman, said he rushed to the scene after he received news of the shooting.

"I heard my father was affected and my little brother, they run the kiosk, I don't have much to do with it," Mr Frisenna said.

"But then I saw them both — they were horrified and they were crying and everything. So everyone was shocked."

Local media said the first shooting took place at a shisha bar in Hanau's CBD on Wednesday evening. Three people were killed.

The perpetrators then reportedly drove to the suburb of Kesselstadt and killed another five people at another shisha bar, before fleeing in a dark-coloured car.

Heavily armed police sealed off streets, while a police helicopter hovered over the city.

"This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness," Hanau's Mayor Claus Kaminsky told the Bild newspaper.

At one of the bars on Thursday morning (local time), forensics police in white overalls inspected the crime scene, which was cordoned off close to Hanau's historic market place. Nearby, traffic flowed as normal and commuters waited for buses.

Bild newspaper said the suspect was a German citizen and that ammunition and gun magazines were found in the vehicle. He had a firearms hunting licence, it added.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted: "Deep sympathy goes out to the families concerned, who are mourning the loss of their dead. With the injured, we hope they will soon recover."

Last October, an anti-Semitic gunman who denounced Jews opened fire outside a German synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and killed two people as he livestreamed his attack.



A car damaged in the shooting is covered in thermal foil. ( AP: Boris Roessler )

A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen, with shattered glass next to it. Forensic experts in white overalls were collecting evidence from the scene.

A short police statement gave no information on the victims and did not give a motive for the attacks.

Hanau, east of Frankfurt, has a population of 100,000.

Katja Leikert, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right party who represents Hanau in the German parliament, tweeted that it was "a real horror scenario for us all."

AP/ABC