Police free 2 people after hostage alarm at German bank but find no perpetrators

Police in Germany entered a bank in a small German town Friday and rescued two people from a locked room, hours after officers were called to respond to a hostage situation. Shortly before 3 pm, police said special forces entered the bank and freed two people unhurt from a locked room.

Police in Germany entered a bank in a small German town Friday and rescued two people from a locked room, hours after officers were called to respond to a hostage situation. Regional police said they were alerted to the situation at the Volksbank branch in Sinzig, a town of about 17,000 people in the Rhine valley near Koblenz, at about 9 am local time. They said they believed there were ''several perpetrators and hostages'' in the bank and the driver of an armoured van was a hostage. Shortly before 3 pm, police said special forces entered the bank and freed two people unhurt from a locked room. Police said they found no hostage-takers. They said that the perpetrator or perpetrators appeared to have left immediately after locking the two people into the vault, but it wasn't clear how that happened.