The police in Germany on Friday said that a male suspect was arrested after a pharmacy was stormed by a special unit in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe where many people were held hostage for hours.
Multiple explosions were heard when police officers in tactical gear stormed inside the pharmacy in the city centre after they first arrived on the scene at around 4:30 p.m.
“A special unit entered the pharmacy at 21:10; a male suspect was arrested,” said Karlsruhe police on Twitter.
Police “were able to arrest the suspected perpetrator and also free the hostages,” said Karlsruhe police spokesman, Dennis Krull.
“It is very good that there were no injuries, neither on the part of the hostages, nor on the part of the emergency forces or the perpetrator,” he added.
A man, with his head covered in a blanket, was brought out of the pharmacy by the police officers and bundled into a car.
They stated that the police searched the building and no one was found injured. The incident took place a day after the deadly shooting rampage at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall in Hamburg.
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The police, earlier in a joint statement with prosecutors, had claimed the involvement of “multiple” hostages. Karlsruhe city centre was cordoned off by the police and many blue and grey police vehicles were seen lined on the streets.
According to the Stuttgarter Zeitung’s report, two people were taken hostage and they were demanding a ransom of a single-digit million euro sum.
Germany’s Bild newspaper had earlier reported that the police had established contact with the alleged hostage-taker.
(With inputs from agencies)
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