What began with a dispute between passengers in a coach ends in a large-scale police operation. The alleged hostage-taking is still a mystery hours later.
Hilpoltstein – After death threats and an alleged hostage-taking in a coach on Autobahn 9 in Bavaria, the police are continuing to investigate the crime.
Special police forces arrested a 30-year-old suspect on Tuesday evening after an hour-long large-scale operation on the A 9 between Hilpoltstein and Greding. That morning the police still couldn’t say whether it was actually a hostage-taking, as was initially assumed. At first, the question of whether the man owned a weapon also remained unresolved.
Two slightly injured
In the afternoon, according to a police spokesman, there was a dispute on the bus with the destination Serbia. The man claimed he had a gun and threatened to kill everyone. There was a physical confrontation between several passengers, with two people being slightly injured. That’s why the bus stopped.
Forces of the special operations command SEK attacked after the hours of large-scale operation, in which dozen officers were involved, around 9:30 p.m. The “Bild” reported on detonations. According to the spokesman, these were due to blinding agents that the SEK used to distract the perpetrator. He was then arrested “without resistance”. According to the police, the officers had made contact via the cell phone of a bus driver in the vehicle, where the alleged hostage-taker was with the drivers.
Bus was on the way to Munich
At the time of access, three bus drivers – initially there was talk of two drivers – and all the other passengers had already left the vehicle. The bus was on its way to Munich and, according to the police, should continue to Serbia.
The police had already completely blocked Autobahn 9 between the Hilpoltstein and Greding junctions in both directions after the alarm was reported in the early evening. Traffic jams formed. The route was opened again at around 10.30 p.m. In the late evening the traffic flowed again. The railway line that runs along the motorway was also temporarily closed. dpa





