Sharjah 24 – Reuters: Dresden Police said a suspected hostage taker, a 40-year-old man, died of the injuries he sustained during the police operation to free the two hostages, on Saturday afternoon. The suspected hostage-taking in the Eastern German city of Dresden took place at shopping mall "Altmarkt-Galerie" in the historic city centre near the famous Striezelmarkt Christmas market.
"The situation is now more or less under control and there is no longer any acute danger in Dresden," spokesperson of the Dresden police Thomas Geithner told Reuters, as pedestrians passed by the mall, the site of the incident.
"A 40-year-old man from Dresden took two people hostage, a woman and a child. In the end, special forces seized the hostages. The two hostages were taken into custody, they are unharmed and safe and are now being looked after," Geithner said.
The man was believed to have killed his 62-year-old mother in an apartment building in the Prohlis district of Dresden, southeast of the city center, before making his way to the city center. According to local media the suspect is also believed to have tried to break into the premises of a local radio station earlier on Saturday, where the police could be seen undertaking investigations in the afternoon.
The incident comes as security has shifted into focus in Germany, after investigators earlier this week foiled a far-right plot to overthrow the German government and install an aristocrat as the leader of a new state.
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