Police are responding to a hostage situation at a Sparkasse bank in Duisburg, Germany. One person has been released while at least one other is being held by an unknown number of armed assailants.
Initial reports indicated that a male and a female, understood to be husband and wife bank employees, were being held by an armed individual in the savings bank in the Rumeln district, police said, according to Der Westen.
Police confirmed via Twitter that two people have been arrested in the vicinity of the bank and that authorities are trying to ascertain if those arrested are connected to the hostage situation.
A tweet from police said the hostage who left was a bank employee, reportedly a woman. It’s understood she exited the bank at around 11am local time, some two hours and 20 minutes after police were called to the scene.
A statement from police said the area has been sealed off and that officers from neighboring areas are assisting. A helicopter was also reported to be at the scene along with police snipers. Photographs from the area show a heavy police presence.
It is unclear at this stage how many perpetrators are involved. "We have to assume that there is at least one armed perpetrator and several people in the branch," a police spokesman told N24, according to Neue Presse, adding that authorities have described the raid as an "untypical bank robbery,” as it took place before the bank opened to the public.
RP online reported that employees of the bank heard voices coming from a vault when they arrived this morning. Police were alerted to the situation at 8:40am local time. The bank was due to open at 9am.
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