Hijacker captured after police commandos storm bus

GERMAN police stormed a hijacked city bus yesterday to end a nearly seven-hour hostage drama without bloodshed, freeing the remaining six hostages held by a man armed with a pistol.

Police commandos stormed the bus and captured the hijacker, who had freed most of his hostages after stopping the bus on an autobahn highway south of Hanover, police spokesman Walter Wollott said.

A television reporter at the scene said he heard no shots fired. The hijacker was not injured in the storming, officials said.

The armed man hijacked a bus in the northern German city of Bremen yesterday, taking 18 passengers, including children, hostage and leading police on a cross-country highway chase.

The hijacker took a seat behind the driver, and with a gun trained on his back forced the bus onto the autobahn, with police cars and ambulances trailing at a distance.

After about two hours, the hijacker stopped the bus on the autobahn south of Hanover, a distance of about 75 miles, and began negotiating with authorities.

He asked for water, a mobile phone and a replacement bus driver and he demanded to speak to Bremen's mayor, Henning Scherf, police spokesman, Ronald Walter said.

His motives remained unclear.

The hijacker gradually freed 10 passengers after stopping, including a man suffering from faintness who police initially said had escaped.

Three passengers were freed or managed to flee at the start of the drama. Several children were among the last remaining captives, Wollott said earlier.

Police said the hijacker fired a shot, but the circumstances were unclear and authorities said they had no reports of injuries.

TV images showed the red-and-white bus speeding along the autobahn with a group of people huddled in the back apparently the hostages and the driver in a vest and tie, with the hijacker perched behind him in a dark shirt and baseball cap.

Police cars ringed the halted bus on a six-lane stretch and authorities closed off the autobahn in both directions near the town of Algermissen, causing huge traffic jams in the Friday afternoon rush hour.

Police said the bus driver contacted them soon after starting his trip at 9.17am, saying he was diverting from his normal route.

A sign at the front of the bus gave the original destination as Bremen's main train station.

Police established telephone contact with the hijacker, described by witnesses as a man with Mediterranean features and about 20 to 25 years old, police spokesman Heiner Melloh said.

Police were trying to persuade the man to surrender without bloodshed, Melloh said.