BERLIN: A woman opened fire in a hospital in Germany`s southwestern town of Loerrach Sunday in a shooting in which she and three other people were killed, police told AFP.

"According to our information, there were four deaths," said a spokesman for police in the Freiburg region, speaking from the scene of the shooting. The woman who had opened fire was among those dead, he said.

"The situation is now under control," said a police spokesman.

The shooting started at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) at Saint Elizabeth hospital in the centre of Loerrach, which lies near Germany`s borders with France and Switzerland.

The incident comes only days after the manslaughter trial opened in Stuttgart Thursday of the father of Tim Kretschmer, the teenager who shot dead 15 people before killing himself at his old school in March 2009.

Joerg Kretschmer, a 51-year-old businessman, is accused of having violated gun laws because his 17-year-old son was able to take his 9mm Beretta pistol from his bedside to use in the shootings in the southern town of Winnenden.

BDST: 0810 HRS, September 20, 2010