BERLIN: A suspect was detained after a shooting at a Mercedes-Benz plant in southwestern Germany left two people dead on Thursday, adding to pressure on Germany to tighten its already-strict gun laws.

The suspect was identified as a 53-year-old man.

Mercedes-Benz said two people had died. The Stuttgart prosecutor confirmed that a second person had died and said no one else was injured.

“One person is in police custody. The persons are employees of an external service provider,” Mercedes said in a statement.

Investigators are working on the assumption of a single perpetrator in the shooting, and that no individuals outside the factory were involved, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said.

The incident was the latest of a number of mass shootings in Germany in recent years, many of which had a connection with extremism.