MUNICH: A teen gunman who killed nine people in a rampage in Munich was “deranged”, police said Saturday, linking his actions to Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik rather than the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

Europe reacted in shock to the third attack on the continent in just over a week, after the black-clad gunman went on a shooting spree at a shopping mall on Friday evening before committing suicide.

“There is absolutely no link to the IS,” Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said.

He describing the attack as a “classic act by a deranged person” and described an individual “obsessed” with mass shootings.

Andrae added: “The link is evident” with Breivik's massacre of 77 people, which took place exactly five years ago to the day.

Munich prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch said the 18-year-old German-Iranian — whose name has been withheld for the time being — had suffered depression and reportedly undergone psychiatric treatment.

Grieving Munich residents laid roses and lit candles in memory of the victims, with one placard bearing the simple plea: “Why?”

“Bloodbath in Munich,” was the headline on the best-selling Bild newspaper as Germany struggled to come to terms with the killings.

The attack had sent Germany's third largest city into lockdown as police launched a massive operation to track down what had initially been thought to be up to three assailants.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was to convene her security council on Saturday to address the shooting.

The incident occurred four days after an axe rampage on a train in the same German state of Bavaria and eight days after a truck attack in the French Riviera city of Nice that killed 84 people.

Armed with a handgun, the attacker opened fire at a McDonald's restaurant and continued along the street before entering the mall.

A police patrol shot and wounded the gunman but he managed to escape before police found the body of what they believed was the “only shooter.” Among the nine killed were three Kosovans, according to the foreign ministry in Pristina, while Munich police said the injured included children.

Scenes of panic

A video posted on social media appeared to show a man in black walking away from a McDonald's while firing repeatedly on people as they fled screaming.

Survivors described terrifying scenes as shoppers rushed from the area, some carrying children in their arms.

“We entered McDonald's to eat... then there was panic, and people ran out,” one woman told Bavarian television.

Another video appeared to show the gunman on a car park roof exchanging a tirade of insults with a man on a nearby balcony.

“I'm German, I was born here,” the assailant replies after the man fired off a volley of swear words, including an offensive term for foreigners.

Police initially believed there could be up to three assailants.

But Andrae later said two others had “absolutely nothing to do” with the attack — and that they were simply fleeing the scene.

Munich's main train station was evacuated and metro and bus transport suspended for several hours while residents were ordered to stay inside, leaving the streets largely deserted.