Cologne train station hostage situation in Germany today
BERLIN -- Police in the western German city of Cologne said Monday on Twitter that a hostage-taker suffered life-threatening injuries when police stormed a pharmacy inside the city's train station. The man had taken a woman hostage for two hours before he was injured during the police operation Monday afternoon.
Emergency personnel were trying to revive him with CPR. It wasn't immediately clear how he sustained the injuries. Police said only that he was injured during the police operation to free the woman.
The hostage was also slightly injured and treated on the scene.
Cologne police closed parts of the station for a couple hours as a hostage situation played out. Police officer Christoph Schulte told The Associated Press that the incident appeared to have started Monday at 12:45 p.m. He said parts of the station, one of the biggest in the country, were closed off as well as Breslauer Platz square behind the station.
Police used Twitter earlier on Monday to warn people to avoid the station as ambulances and heavily-armed police lined up behind the train station, the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger reported. Police said there was no immediate suspicion of a link to terrorism.
German railroad operator Deutsche Bahn tweeted earlier that some of the station's tracks were shut down and trains were being canceled or delayed.