At least nine killed in German school shooting

A gunman killed at least nine people when he opened fire at a secondary school in southwest Germany on Wednesday, police said on Wednesday.

"We have at least nine dead and numerous wounded," a police spokeswoman said.

The gunman had fled the scene of the shooting spree in Winnenden, a town of 27,000 near Stuttgart in Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

Helicopters were circling above the town, police said. Rescue workers and fire fighters were at the school, which had been evacuated.

Several school shootings have shocked Germany in past years. In 2006, a masked man wearing explosives and brandishing rifles opened fire at a school in the western German town of Emsdetten, wounding at least 11 people before committing suicide.

In April 2002, Germany suffered its worst school shooting when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt.

Wednesday's shooting occurred after news that in the United States, at least 10 people including the suspected gunman and his mother were killed in a shooting spree and car chase in southern Alabama on Tuesday.

BERLIN, March 11 (Reuters)