Feared hostage drama in Germany ends without bloodshed
AFP
Friday, Oct 25, 2013
A man with his hands up faces special police forces on October 25, 2013 in front of a fast-food restaurant in Freiburg, Germany (DPA/AFP, Patrick Seeger)
Berlin — German police Friday ended a tense overnight stand-off when they arrested a Turkish man who had threatened to set ablaze his fast-food restaurant filled with a dozen people.
The people holed up with the restaurant owner included his wife and five children, and it was unclear whether they were there voluntarily or kept against their will, police said later.
Fearing a hostage situation, police mobilised some 400 officers and negotiated by phone with the agitated 36-year-old before a special response squad was able to arrest him in the morning.
Throughout the night "we received very mixed signals" about the situation and threat level, said Freiburg police chief Alfred Oschwald at a press conference.
"There were many signs that the perpetrator may pose a danger to the others," he said, adding that the children inside the restaurant were aged between seven and 17.
No-one was killed or badly wounded in the stand-off in an industrial area of Freiburg in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, but four people suffered minor injuries.
During the nearly 14-hour drama, police had sealed off the area and said the unidentified man had claimed by phone to be armed and to be carrying a flammable liquid.
The man, a Turkish Kurd who arrived in Germany in 1996, was known to police for drugs offences and weapons possession and blackmail charges and driving without a licence.
He was agitated apparently because he feared consequences after he had failed to show up on Thursday for a court date, police said.
