Six people were killed and another two wounded in a shooting in the southwestern German town of Rot am See on Friday, police said, according to The Associated Press.

The suspect's parents were among the dead and the other victims also were believed to be relatives, the report said.

A man called police shortly after 12:45 p.m. local time and told them he had killed several people, regional police chief Reiner Moeller was quoted as having said at a news conference.

Police kept the man on the line and, when they arrived at the scene several minutes later, arrested a 26-year-old German national as the suspect in the slayings, Moeller said.

Officers found the bodies of six people - three women and three men, ages 36 to 69 - in and behind a building where a bar is located.

Another two people were hurt, and one of them has life-threatening injuries, Moeller said. The suspect also threatened two children, ages 12 and 14.

The suspect had a license to own firearms as a shooting club member, Moeller said. Authorities believe he used a semi-automatic pistol.

Germany has been on a high level of alert due to a series of terrorist attacks in the country in recent years, including a 2016 attack on a Christian market in Berling in which 12 people were killed by an Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist who rammed into a crowd of civilians.

While Moeller could not confirm the motive for Friday’s shooting, he added police believe the background to the shooting was what he called “a family drama”.

The suspect's mother and father were among the dead, the police chief said. Police were working to clear up how the others were related.

Rot am See is located about 170 kilometers (105 miles) northwest of Munich. It is a town of some 5,300 people in a rural area of Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)