A hostage crisis unfolded in the eastern German city of Dresden on Saturday, when an armed man broke into the downtown Altmarkt-Galerie shopping mall and detained a woman and child.
A SWAT team and negotiators were deployed to the site as police evacuated people from the mall and closed the nearby Christmas market. Police spokesman Thomas Geithner said officers eventually detained the suspect, who had been injured. The hostages were unharmed. Police had previously said they were maintaining contact with the man by phone.
According to Bild newspaper, a 40-year-old gunman killed a 70-year-old woman on Saturday morning. He then reportedly tried to break into a local radio station while firing a handgun. It is understood that the suspect shot through the door of the main entrance to the office of Radio Dresden, but failed to enter the building. He reportedly later fled to the mall. The paper said he had hidden in a drugstore, where he took hostages.
Head of Radio Dresden, Tino Utassy, told Bild that its employees were unharmed.
Radio Dresden, meanwhile, reported that an armed man had first broken into an office building near the station before firing shots. The radio station said emergency services had discovered the body of a 62-year-old woman in one of the city’s apartment blocks. It added that police believe the gunman is the woman’s 40-year-old son.
