Munich gunman ‘had planned attack for a year’

The 18-year-old gunman who killed nine people in Munich on Friday had been planning his attack for around a year, German authorities said.

Robert Heimberger, head of Bavaria’s criminal office, told a press conference that David Sonboly had paid a visit last year to the town of Winnenden – the scene of a school shooting 2009 – and took photographs.

He added that the victims had not been specifically targetted and were not classmates of the gunman.

The press also heard that Sonboly had spent two months as an inpatient at a mental care hospital in 2015 and was afterwards treated as an outpatient.

The crime office head said that the Glock pistol that Sonboly used in the shooting was probably purchased through the “dark web” market.

Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, spokesman for the Munich prosecutor's office, told the briefing there was no evidence of any political motivation for the attack.

Sonboly killed nine people, seven of whom were teenagers, at a shopping mall in Munich on Friday, before turning the gun on himself.