Special Forces surround house as man takes children hostage

A man armed with a knife took several schoolchildren hostage in a north-western German town today – pulling them off a bus and holing up in a nearby house.

Special Forces were surrounding the house where the man, said to be an Iranian who lived locally, had forced the children into a cellar.

The man, who was armed with two kitchen knives, had bound the children with rope before leaving the bus and took them down an alley to a house.

The woman householder is said to have refused to open the door, but the man forced it open.

Police are said to be negotiating with the man who was said to be “very nervous.”

The man forced between four and seven children, aged 10 and 11, from a bus filled with pupils in the town of Ennepetal shortly before midday, police spokeswoman Sandra Zwick said.

Police surrounded the house on the edge of the town, which is 40 miles from Cologne. The man’s motives were not immediately known, police said.

The man, described by witnesses as in his 40s, left the bus with about 10 children but apparently let several go on the street. He forced the others toward a house where a woman was returning home and just opening her front door, police said.

The kidnapper pushed the woman aside, shoved the children into the house and locked the door. Police said they were trying to establish contact with the man.

The children were on a public bus packed with students on their way home from school, police said. Initially, police had said it was a school bus.