German city center sealed off over ‘hostage situation’

A hostage crisis has unfolded in the eastern German city of Dresden on Saturday, when an armed man broke into the downtown Altmarkt-Galerie shopping mall and held a woman and child at gunpoint.

A SWAT team and negotiators were deployed to the site as police evacuated people from the mall and closed the nearby Christmas market.

Police spokesman Thomas Geithner said officers maintained contact with the 40-yer-old suspect by phone during the siege before eventually detaining him. He later died of his injuries, newspaper Bild reported, citing the Interior Ministry.

The hostages were reportedly unharmed. 

The body of the suspect's 62-year-old mother was found in a city apartment block on Saturday morning. Police said they believe the murder of the gunman’s mother and his subsequent rampage were “obviously related.”

Radio Dresden reported that, before attacking the mall, the gunman tried to storm its office while firing a gun, but failed to enter the building. Head of Radio Dresden, Tino Utassy, has told Bild newspaper that its employees were unharmed.