Hostages were taken in a shopping center in Dresden on Saturday morning, the local police said. The criminal had previously killed his mother.

Due to the "opacity" of the situation in the shopping center called Altmarkt-Galerie, it was not possible to know for a long time how many people were taken hostage. However, it soon became clear that the shopping center had been evacuated and the Christmas market on the square had been closed.

According to the police, road and public transport in the city center was also restricted. Police spokesman Thomas Geithner issued an official press statement about the Dresden hostage-taking at noon. According to information from Radio Dresden, it states that the hostage-taking is connected to the death of a 62-year-old woman, whose body was found in an apartment.

It turned out that the woman's 40-year-old son is the hostage-taker, who also has a gun. It also turned out that the hostage-taker had killed his own mother.

The police consulted with experts and tried to get him to surrender voluntarily, along with releasing the hostages. They kept in touch with the man, who barricaded himself in a room, by phone. It was written that around 8:30 a.m., the gunman entered the building next to the central train station in Dresden, where shots were fired.

The operation, launched by the Dresden police to free the hostages, ended a few minutes before 1 p.m. The man was captured, two people, both hostages, escaped unharmed.

According to the Twitter page of the local police, there is no longer an emergency. The closure of the city center has been lifted, but the shopping center will not open for the time being.

Although it has not been officially confirmed yet, it can be seen in the recent photos posted on Radio Dresden's website,

that a little boy was one of the hostages. They say that he and the other hostage are under medical observation.

It turned out that the police were only able to free the hostages by injuring the hostage-taker. They write on their Twitter page that the 40-year-old soldier was operated on, but did not survive and died from his injuries.

Source and full article: Origo

Featured image: radiodresden.de