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Algés in Portugal: According to consistent media reports, the hostage-taker was German
Photo: IMAGO/Ãlvaro Isidoro / IMAGO/GlobalImagens
The Portuguese police have shot and killed a hostage-taker who appears to be a German.
The man was killed in the early hours of the morning in Algés, about ten kilometers west of Lisbon, after "several attempts to persuade him to give up failed," the police said.
As reported by the TV channel CNN Portugal and other media, citing police forces, the dead man was a German tourist who broke into a house shortly before five in the morning.
When the police arrived, the attacker took at least one man hostage.
The "very tall and strong man," armed with two knives, seriously injured a hostage and slightly injured a police officer, it said.
The police regret "the death of the attacker" and have initiated internal investigations, it said.
The background to the incident initially remained unclear.
At the request of the dpa news agency, the police did not want to confirm or deny until the evening whether the dead man was actually a German.
ani/dpa
