BERLIN - Police say a man has been shot dead after entering a movie theater in southwestern Germany, apparently with a weapon. They say they believe that no one else was injured in the incident.

Police spokesman Bernd Hochstaedter said authorities were told early Thursday afternoon that an armed man had entered the Kinopolis movie theater in the town of Viernheim and that shots apparently had been fired.

Hesse's interior minister, Peter Beuth, said it wasn't clear whether the weapon was real.

Hochstaedter said that the police deployment lasted around three hours.

He said: "We believe that there were no injured people, and that the people who were in the cinema with the perpetrator could be freed uninjured."