Tag Archives: Hostages

Police shoot dead masked man who took hostages in German cinema

German special police during hostage situation

By Ralf Banser

VIERNHEIM, Germany (Reuters) – A masked man took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday before police stormed the complex and shot him dead, police said.

No other people were injured, a police spokesman said.

The attacker, who carried a rifle or “long gun”, acted alone and appeared to have been a “disturbed man”, the interior minister of Hesse state, Peter Beuth, told the regional parliament.

Police had not identified the man or established his motive, spokesman Bernd Hochstaedter said, adding that nothing immediately pointed to him having a militant background.

German television showed pictures of heavily-armed police, wearing helmets and body armor, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim, south of Frankfurt, and a couple fleeing the building.

Cinema employee Guri Blakaj told Reuters the gunman, who appeared to be aged between 18 and 25 and was about 1.7 meters tall, entered the cinema at around 3 p.m. and told workers to get into an office.

He then went into a cinema theater. Blakaj, who said there were about six workers and 30 cinemagoers in the building, then heard shots fired.

Police special forces stormed the building and shot him.

There was still a heavy police presence at the scene into the late afternoon, and a helicopter circled overhead.

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers, Michael Nienaber and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Andrew Roche)

UPDATE: Paris Terrorist Attack, Death Toll Rising, Still Ongoing

Currently the death toll rises as the Center of Paris is on lockdown. There have been attacks in at least three locations. a Paris Cambodian restaurant, an explosion in a bar that is near the Paris futbol stadium and at Bataclan Arts Centre concert hall. Other shootings have been reported but not confirmed at a Shopping Mall, another restaurant and the Louvre Museum. A hostage situation continues with reports of at least 60 hostages at the Bataclan Arts Centre.

Witnesses, according to the BBC described several gunman storming into the Bataclan Arts Centre firing their weapons into the air and shooting people on their way in.

As many as 60 people have been killed with countless injuries.

President Francois Hollande has closed the French borders, issued a state of emergency and is asking people in Paris to stay indoors.

The situation is still ongoing with numerous attacks being reported spreading out from the center of Paris.

Jihadist Takes Hostages In Sydney Café

A jihadist held a group of Sydney, Australia residents hostage for 16 hours before police stormed the building and freed them.

The raid took place just before 2:30 a.m. local time at the Lindt Chocolate Café.  A terrorist named Man Haron Monis, an Iranian who had sent hate mail to the families of fallen soldiers, has been identified as the jihadist.

The terrorist and at least one other person are dead.  Paramedics took four hostages from the café and sources say that three are in critical condition.

The gunman had forced the hostages to stand in front of the store’s windows with their hands pressed against them.  A few hours into the incident he placed a jihadist flag in the café window.

Australia’s Network Ten reported that Monis was armed with a shotgun and a machete.  He demanded to speak directly to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Monis emigrated to Australia in 1996 and was known for his extremist views.

Islamists Hold Nuns Hostage In Syria

A group of Islamists have captured the ancient quarter of the Christian town of Maaloula and are holding nuns hostage inside a monastery.

Reports say terrorists linked to the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nursa Front stormed the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla and are keeping the nuns hostage. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Islamists captured the town after four days of intense fighting.

The capture of the town reportedly was part of a rebel surge to obtain control of a central Syrian Highway between Damascus and Homs.

The government capturing the highway is seen as a key objective for the al-Assad government as it would allow the country’s cache of chemical weapons to be transported for removal and destruction.

“Security remains a key challenge for all. The destruction of a chemical weapons program has never taken place under such challenging and dangerous conditions,” Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission of the U.N. and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told OPCW delegates.