German village reels as police probe restaurant slayings

The sleepy hamlet of Sittensen is the kind of place where shops close early, everyone greets each other on the street and family-owned hotels don't ask to be paid upfront.

It's a measure of the pace of life there that on Wednesdays the community virtually closes. Nestled not far from the autobahn, and midway between the two northern German port cities of Hamburg and Bremen, it's easy to see why local residents have plenty of civic pride in their well-kept though unremarkable town.

But since Monday, Sittensen has been reeling. A sense of fear and disbelief has descended on the tight-knit community after the murders of seven people at a restaurant owned by a couple originally from Hong Kong.

Danny Fan Wing-hung and his wife, Anny, proprietors of the popular Lin Yue Chinese eatery in Sittensen, southwest of Hamburg, were slain along with five others in execution-style killings on Sunday night, stunning local residents and leaving police searching for a possible motive. The tragic event has unleashed a spectacle never seen before by local residents, as hordes of international media descend on the community of low-rise, red-brick buildings.

The crime is now the focus of an investigation by about 100 state police officers and authorities of the German state of Lower Saxony.

'We simply can't understand what's happened here,' said Sittensen's mayor, Stefan Tiemann, emphasising that those killed were considered well-integrated and valued members of the community.