A gunman broke into a shopping center in the eastern city of Dresden
Police cordoned off the Altmarktgalerie after a hostage situation. © Jörg Schurig / picture alliance via Getty Images
A hostage crisis unfolded in the eastern German city of Dresden on Saturday, when an armed man broke into the downtown Altmarkt-Galerie shopping mall and detained a woman and child.
A SWAT team and negotiators were deployed to the site as police evacuated people from the mall and closed the nearby Christmas market.
Police spokesman Thomas Geithner said officers eventually detained the suspect, who had been injured.
The hostages were unharmed. Police had previously said they were maintaining contact with the man by phone.
According to Geithner, the suspect is 40 years old. The body of his 70-year-old mother was found in one of the city’s apartment blocks on Saturday morning.
Radio Dresden said that before attacking the mall, the gunman tried to storm its office while firing a gun, but failed to enter the building. Head of Radio Dresden, Tino Utassy, told Bild newspaper that its employees were unharmed.
