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Armed police officers on the area around the Altmarkt-Galerie in Dresden
Photo: Bodo Schackow / dpa
The Dresden hostage-taker is dead. The police announced this on Saturday.
The 40-year-old suffered fatal injuries when the hostages were accessed and freed.
The specific circumstances are the subject of further investigations.
According to police findings, the 40-year-old killed his 62-year-old mother in an apartment building in the Prohlis district of Dresden in the morning.
Around 7:20 a.m., the police found the lifeless woman.
An emergency doctor who was called could only determine their death.
Apparently shots were fired into the Radio Dresden editorial building
Afterwards, the man is said to have gone to an office building in which the Radio Dresden station is also based.
Shots are said to have been fired there on Saturday morning before the hostage-taking in the Altmarkt gallery.
Radio Dresden reported that the man tried in vain to break into the editorial offices.
The man tried to destroy a door and break in, the broadcaster's managing director, Tino Utassy, told the German Press Agency.
After he failed to get into the rooms, he shot through a hole in the door.
"Fortunately the staff had the presence of mind and ran out of a second exit and fled," said Utassy.
According to the broadcaster, all were unharmed.
The perpetrator left the building after the shots were fired.
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Police officers in front of the Altmarkt Gallery in Dresden
Photo: Jörg Schurig / dpa
mentally disturbing behavior
The third location was then the Dresden Altmarkt-Galerie.
There, according to the police, the man took an employee and a child hostage.
The police evacuated the mall and adjacent areas.
Several people were accommodated in a bus of the Dresden transport company and were cared for there.
The police asked because of the kidnapping to avoid downtown Dresden.
The famous Striezelmarkt also remained closed for a while.
At noon the police overpowered the perpetrators, the hostages remained externally unharmed.
A police spokesman explained the motive of the alleged perpetrator that the man had been very conspicuous in his mental behavior.
“We are most likely assuming a mental illness.” Otherwise, nothing was obviously known to the police.
hen/slu/dpa