A defendant had shot and killed a prosecutor in a courtroom in the southern German province of Bavaria.

The gunman, 54, opened fire at Dachau administrative court, first at the judge before shooting the prosecutor, BBC reports Thursday.

The prosecutor was hit three times, in the arm, stomach and shoulder, and taken to hospital where he later died.

The defendant was overpowered and taken into custody. According to unofficial reports, the victim was 31 and from Munich and had been employed by the Bavarian prosecutor's office for only a year.

The man was accused of improper payment of wages after he allegedly failed to pay tens of thousands of euros of national insurance contributions. Had he been convicted he would have faced a fine or a possible five-year jail term.

Security at German courts has been tightened in recent years because of several earlier attacks on judges and prosecutors. In April 2009, a man killed a woman relative in a courtroom in Landshut, north-east of Munich, over an inheritance dispute. A few months later an Egyptian woman was fatally stabbed in the eastern city of Dresden.

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