A manhunt is under way after three bodies were found in a residential building in a village in western Germany.
The suspect fled when officers arrived at the scene in Weitefeld, Westerwald, and is on the run, a police spokesperson told the German Press Agency.
Police advised residents in the surrounding area to stay at home, and warned people not to pick up hitchhikers, local media reported.
Details have not been released about those killed.
German outlet Bild reported that a special task force was on site and a police helicopter is being used.
Weitefeld, which has about population of about 2,200, was cordoned off and vehicles entering and leaving are being checked.
A police spokesperson told Bild that an emergency call came at 3:45am local time (2.45am BST).
Local media reported that police said the incident happened in a family home and the three victims include two males and one female.
A police spokesman did not rule out that children were among the dead.
Weitefeld’s mayor Karl-Heinz Kessler said he could never “have imagined such an act” in his small community.
“You know the people here in the village,” he told Der Spiegel.
Kessler said a woman, a man and a teenage boy lived at the house.
