By Sonja Issel
Published on
A large-scale police operation is under way in southwest Berlin after a woman was reportedly taken hostage in a supermarket on Friday evening.
At around 10 p.m., a man is reported to have threatened a woman with a knife in a Rewe store and taken her hostage.
The police operation was still ongoing in the early hours of Saturday.
At about 7:30 a.m. police confirmed to Die Zeit that the situation remained tense. The supermarket is currently cordoned off, according to a dpa reporter.
Officers from a special operations unit have taken up positions in front of the building, and numerous patrol cars, ambulances, and fire service vehicles are also at the scene. In the early morning, officers placed a ladder against the building to get an overview of the situation inside the supermarket.
“We are in contact with the hostage-taker,” a police spokesperson told the dpa news agency.
It is unclear whether the suspect and the woman are known to each other.
Staff members who were in the supermarket at the time of the incident were able to leave the building unharmed and are being attended to by emergency services.
One employee described the incident to Bild: “The attacker was at the checkout, didn’t want to place the goods on the conveyor belt and then suddenly pulled out a knife”.
Police have not yet confirmed this account. They have said they were in close contact with the suspect and were doing everything possible to resolve the situation peacefully.
This is a developing story. Please check back for details.