Six Italians shot dead in Germany - police

Six Italian men were shot dead execution-style in the northwestern German city of Duisburg, police said.

The shootings took place close to an Italian restaurant called Da Bruno, a police spokesman said. The victims, all shot in the head, were aged between 16 and 39.

German television showed pictures of a distraught middle-aged woman arriving at the scene shouting "Sebastiano!"

Police found the six in, or lying next to, two cars near the city's train station after a passer-by heard shots at about 2.30am (1.30pm NZT).

Five were already dead and the sixth died on the way to hospital.

The motive for the bloodbath remained a mystery.

At the end of 2006, there were 3500 Italians living in Duisburg, a run-down city in Germany's industrial heartland, the Ruhr, that has been hit by high levels of unemployment.

Police, working in heavy rain, sealed off the area around the station. The crime took place between the restaurant and an office block in the centre of the city.

Police said they were looking at close-circuit television footage from a camera installed at the office block.

The cars, one a VW Golf and the other a small Opel delivery van, were registered in German towns.