An investigation is underway after a 16-year-old boy was shot dead by police in Germany's western city of Dortmund, authorities said on Tuesday.
Dortmund police said on Twitter that the suspect had threatened officers with a knife as they were responding to a call about a possible stabbing in the north of the city.
"The teenager attempted to attack officers with a knife. Hence our colleagues used their guns," police spokesman Gunnar Wortmann told reporters on Monday evening, soon after the incident.
But witnesses accused the police of using excessive force against the boy, who appeared to have suicidal feelings, and was harming himself with the knife.
"Police officers could have used Taser or pepper spray to stop him, but they didn't. They directly shot and killed him," a man who witnessed the incident told the German n-tv news channel.
"I am very sad, he was a 16-year-old African boy. I don't understand why the police didn't use other means to stop him," a woman in the neighborhood said.
The Bild daily reported that the boy was a Senegalese national, however authorities did not provide any details about his identity, as the investigation was still ongoing.
Authorities said the investigation has been taken over by the police department of Recklinghausen, the neighboring city, to ensure an independent probe into the incident.
