The man who took a hostage in a pharmacy at Cologne's main train station on Monday may be a Syrian, German police said after a passport was found at the scene.
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) The man who took a hostage in a pharmacy at Cologne's main train station on Monday may be a Syrian, German police said after a passport was found at the scene.
The hostage crisis ended in a police operation that critically wounded the hostage-taker. He was reanimated. The woman he held captive was hurt and hospitalized.
"A passport was found in the back of the pharmacy, issued to a 55-year-old Syrian national," Klaus-Stephan Becker, from Cologne police, told reporters.
The holder of the passport had a permit to stay in Germany until mid-2021, the officer said. He was accused of theft, fraud, assault and trespassing.
Klaus Rueschenschmidt, who led the operation to free the hostage, told journalists that witness said the suspect had claimed to be a member of the IS terrorist group (banned in Russia).
The suspect threw a Molotov cocktail at a 14-year-old girl inside a fast-food restaurant and tried to set the woman he held hostage on fire. He also demanded a safe flight to Syria.
The crisis disrupted traffic for hours as Cologne police cordoned off the train station. Restrictions were lifted in the evening. The Deutsche Bahn rail company said trains were running with delays.
