Four schoolgirls held by an Iranian man armed with two knives were freed by police after a five-hour hostage drama in western Germany on Tuesday, a police spokesperson said.
The 50-year-old man had taken the girls, aged 11 to 16, hostage at about 1pm GMT after boarding a bus and then forcing them into the cellar of a suburban house in the town of Ennepetal near Wuppertal.
Police said one of the girls was slightly injured by a knife but they were otherwise unhurt. They did not provide any information on the condition of the hostage-taker.
The man, an asylum seeker, had previously been treated in Germany for psychiatric problems and wanted to use the hostage taking to pressure the German government to allow his family to join him in Germany, police said.
“I have a problem with the German government, I’m taking these children as hostages” the hostage-taker was quoted as saying by a witness on N-24 television. — AFP