Police in Germany arrest hostage-taker, free captives at city hall

INGOLSTADT, Germany -- A special police unit arrested a hostage-taker and freed his captives at Ingolstadt City Hall on Monday evening.

The standoff, which began early in the day, prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel to cancel an election rally in the Bavarian city.

The 24-year-old captor was injured during a police raid on the building, and his two remaining captives were freed unharmed, police spokesman Guenther Beck told the Associated Press. It wasn’t immediately clear how the hostage-taker was injured, Beck said.

Earlier in the day, the captor freed two other people he had kidnapped at the building. They also were not hurt, police said.

More than 200 police officers surrounded City Hall for nearly nine hours before the special unit raided the building.

The hostage-taker, whose identity was not released, was a known stalker and had been banned from entering the building because he had harassed a female employee there, said Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann.

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