Cologne train station hostage ‘injured but alive’

A woman who was taken hostage by an armed man in Cologne’s main train station is being treated for minor injuries, German police have said.

The first reports of a hostage situation in progress at the station emerged around noon. A police spokesman then confirmed that an unidentified man had entered a pharmacy inside the station and taken at least one hostage.

Trains were cancelled as police flooded the station, placing a large part of the station and the surrounding streets under lockdown.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Trained hostage negotiators were reportedly able to make contact with the kidnapper, whose motive for the attack remains unknown.

Shortly after 2pm, a police statement confirmed that the suspected hostage-taker had been taken into custody and that the female hostage was being treated for “light injuries”.

Details of how the woman was brought to safety have not yet emerged, although “there are unconfirmed reports that some shots were fired,” says the BBC. Deutsche Welle reporter Dana Regev, said that police officers had “stormed the pharmacy”.

A short time later, Cologne Police tweeted that the attacker had been “severely injured” in the encounter and was being resuscitated by emergency services.

Police “appealed to locals to avoid the area and warned of likely disruptions to train services”, Deutsche Welle reports.