‘All clear’: Dresden hostage situation ends

German police have confirmed that a hostage situation in a Dresden shopping centre has ended.

Published: 10 December 2022 13:28 CET

'All clear': Dresden hostage situation ends

Special forces of the German police stand in the center of the city of Dresden. Photo:Jens Schlueter/ AFP

German police say the hostage situation in a shopping centre in the eastern city of Dresden has ended.

According to BILD, an armed man killed an elderly woman on Saturday morning then shot at the Radio Dresden offices with a pistol. He reportedly then fled to the Altmarktgalerie shopping centre and took hostages in a pharmacy.

Deutsche Welle reports that the nearby Striezelmarkt Christmas market was closed briefly, but the hostage situation ended in the early afternoon.

Posting on Twitter, police confirmed the operation in Dresden city centre was over, adding that two people, thought to be hostages, were unharmed and in the care of police: “All clear! The hostage situation in #Dresden is over! Two people are in our care, apparently unharmed. #dd1012″.

🚨 Entwarnung! 🚨

Die Geiselnahme in #Dresden ist beendet! Zwei Menschen befinden sich äußerlich unverletzt in unserer Obhut. #dd1012

— Polizei Sachsen (@PolizeiSachsen) December 10, 2022

The city centre, which had been closed temporarily by police, has reopened.

A police spokesman confirmed that a suspect has been arrested: “We arrested the 40-year-old hostage taker. There are now two people in our care who were in his power,” spokesman Thomas Geithner said.

German daily newspaper Bild reports that neither of the hostages were injured.

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Under the new rules, foreigners could face deportation for social media comments that glorify or condone a single terrorist act, according to a draft law agreed by the cabinet.

At the moment, it is necessary to express support for several acts.

After Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, there was a surge in hate posts on social media in Germany with officials saying Islamists in particular were responsible.

The fatal stabbing last month of a police officer by an Afghan asylum seeker in Mannheim also triggered a surge of such posts, fuelling the debate on deportations.

“It is very clear to us that Islamist agitators who are mentally living in the Stone Age have no place in our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Funke media group, ahead of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.

“Anyone who does not have a German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must — wherever possible — be expelled”.

Glorifying acts of terror online fuels a climate of violence that can encourage extremists and violent criminals, according to the draft law, which still needs to be passed by parliament.

Convictions have already been made over some social media posts. An imam in Munich was this month fined 4,500 euros ($4,800) for posting on Facebook that “everyone has their own way of celebrating the month of October”, on the day of the Hamas attack.

In parliament following the Mannheim attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called for those who celebrate acts of terror to face deportation.

Glorifying terrorist offences amounted to a “slap in the face for the victims, their families and our democratic order”, he said.