Two felons armed with razor blades in a Swedish prison threatened two prison guards. In order to release the hostages, they demanded pizza for all inmates.
Stockholm – Two inmates of a closed prison in Sweden have taken two prison guards hostage.
They temporarily holed up in a guard room of the Hällby prison a good 100 kilometers west of Stockholm, where the two employees were, as reported by the TT news agency, the SVT radio station and other Swedish media. At around 7 p.m., they released one hostage and later the second, the police informed. In the late evening, the police finally announced: “The two perpetrators have now been arrested and taken to the police station in Eskilstuna.” The case was viewed as kidnapping in two cases.
The hostages were reported to be a man and a woman, and the hostage-takers were felons armed with razor blades. According to the newspaper “Aftonbladet” they have each been convicted of murder.
The two inmates initially covered surveillance cameras and requested a helicopter. In the afternoon, according to SVT and “Aftonbladet”, they made an absurd demand to the officers: All 20 inmates in their department should receive pizza with a kebab topping, in return a hostage could be released. Shortly afterwards, photos actually showed police officers putting several pizza boxes into a car. The pizzeria confirmed to TT that 20 kebab pizzas had been picked up.
The police initially only announced that a major operation was taking place in the prison and that officials with special skills were on site. In the afternoon, she confirmed on her website that the two inmates had barricaded themselves in a room that also contained two prison guards. Investigations into kidnapping had been initiated.
According to the Swedish prison authorities, the Hällby asylum near the town of Eskilstuna is a closed facility with 98 places in security class 1. This is the highest security level for Swedish prisons. dpa
