Karlstadt: SEK deployment due to possible hostage situation

• SEK deployment in Karlstadt (Main-Spessart district)
• With Man armed with knife (22) rioted in apartment building and fled to roof
• Police Lower Franconia reports Arrest
• Reports about possible Hostage situation neither confirmed nor denied
• Update on the perpetrator – motive still unclear

Police, firefighters and ambulance service are in the night to Tuesday (8 February 2022) because of a Threat situation to Karlstadt in Lower Franconia (Main-Spessart district). Until the morning hours lasted the Large-scale operation a special task force (SEK) of the police was also involved. In response to an inquiry from inFranken.de Björn Schmitt, press spokesman for the Lower Franconia police headquarters, reports that a suspicious man has now been arrested. According to reports, there is a Hostage situation have given. However, the spokesman would neither confirm nor deny this. It is still the subject of the investigations whether a hostage-taking had taken place. The rioter from Karlstadt must now appear before an investigating judge.

Update from February 09, 2022: Karlstadt rioter must appear before investigating judge – motive still unclear

One day after the arrest of a man rioting in Karlstadt, the suspect is to be brought before an investigating judge on Wednesday (February 9, 2022). This will decide whether the 22-year-old will be remanded in custody or placed in a district hospital, said a police spokesman.

The mentally distressed man had raged in the night to Tuesday armed with a knife in an apartment building and triggered a large-scale operation. No one was seriously injured. After hours of negotiations, the 22-year-old from Lower Saxony could finally be arrested on the roof of the house without resistance.

There is no information yet about his possible motive. According to the police, the man apparently wanted to visit an acquaintance who had stayed in the house in the Main-Spessart district.

SEK operation in Karlstadt – reports of hostage-taking

According to the police spokesman, an emergency call was received shortly after midnight about a rampaging 22-year-old man in an apartment building in Brunnengasse. When police arrived, the man, armed with a knife, had fled into the apartment of a 52-year-old woman. Thereupon the SEK and a police negotiating team were called in.

In the morning hours, the man had then independently fled from the apartment of the 52-year-old to the roof of the house. Over a longer period of time, there was a danger that the man could fall from the roof, so more emergency services were requested, including from the mountain rescue.

It was not until around 9:30 a.m. that the man was finally apprehended by special forces without resistance. The man is a 22-year-old from Lower Saxony, who apparently wanted to visit an acquaintance who had spent the night in the apartment building in Karlstadt. A previous relationship with the 52-year-old resident, in whose apartment he fled, did not exist according to current state of investigation apparently.

Man armed with knife escapes onto house roof – police report arrest

The 22-year-old is currently (as of 12:00) in police custody. The background to the crime is currently still unclear and the subject of the ongoing investigation, which is being carried out by the Würzburg Criminal Investigation Department in close coordination with the Würzburg Public Prosecutor’s Office.

According to current information, no one was seriously injured. In addition to the police, a large contingent of rescue services, the Karlstadt volunteer fire department, the Würzburg professional fire department and the Bavarian mountain rescue service were also on the scene.

with dpa

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