Six Italians shot dead in Germany in execution-style killing

BERLIN (AFP) - Six Italian men were found shot dead in an execution-style killing near a train station in the western German city of Duisburg, police said on Wednesday.

"The six men found with bullet wounds to the head were Italians aged from 16 to 39," Duisburg police spokesman Heinrich Rotering told AFP.

A police patrol found the bodies of five men, along with a sixth man who was critically wounded and died as he was taken to hospital, in two vehicles around 2:30 am (0030 GMT) Wednesday.

They had all been shot in the head.

A woman passerby heard the sound of shooting and alerted a police patrol car, which went to the scene.

Witnesses said they saw two people running from the scene of the shooting.

Police do not yet know the motive for the killings nor the identities of the victims.

"According to the information we have, the man brought to the hospital did not say anything before he died," said another Duisburg police spokesman, Michael Wieseler.