Local Residents With German Ties React To Mall Attack

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Concern is growing tonight in the local German community as some struggle to reach their relatives.

One local woman says she has family who works where the attacks happened and has yet been able to contact her loved one.

As gunfire broke out at a packed mall in Munich, Diane Fine was getting to work at Sacramento's German Deli while desperately calling home to Munich.

"To make sure my family's OK over there," said Fine.

Fine's cousin works at The Center where authorities say a gunman opened fire, killing nine people Friday evening. Katie Muir, a German folk dancer, says it's typically the busiest time of night there.

"With it happening at six o'clock, that's when everybody's out in the biergartens and the bierstubens," said Muir.

At the German-style Der Biergarten in Midtown Sacramento, Alex Boyle says he refuses to get caught up in the fear, he believes, is gripping Europe.

"There's a culture that exists in Europe right now that loves our attention to it. It loves that we're afraid and loves that we can't have fun," said Boyle.

But back at the deli, we caught up with a woman whose German relatives have reason to be afraid.

"I just had my sister visiting from Germany and they were very concerned about all this terrorism we have seen in France and neighboring countries in Europe.

Edda Kleng says Germany has been on edge since Monday when an Afghan teenager reportedly acting in the name of ISIS slashed and stabbed passengers on a train.

Late Friday, authorities concluded that the mall shooter was an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent.

They found his body nearby.

But that didn't calm Diane Fine's nerves, who has yet to hear from family in Munich.

"I'm scared, I'm frightened," she said.

We also reached out to UC Davis and Sac State, who both have exchange students in Germany. School officials say all of the students are safe and accounted for.