Hostage-taking in Ghent: perpetrators give themselves up, victim unharmed

Hostage-taking in Ghent: perpetrators give themselves up, victim unharmed

15 heavily-armed members of special police units raided the Pilorijnstraat flat in Ghent where one person was taken hostage on Monday morning. 3 suspects, having given themselves up without violence, came out of the building with their hands up. The victim is unharmed. The public prosecutor in Ghent suggests this may have been a drug-related argument. After the police intervened on Monday just before 1:00pm, 3 men left the flat with their hands in the air and no sign of violence. They were searched and arrested. It is as yet unknown whether a fourth person was involved.

Now the police intervention is over, the investigation can now get underway. “The suspects are being questioned by the police,” said the Ghent prosecutor’s office. “It is looking like this was linked to a drug-related argument.” According to neighbours speaking to VRT, the flat, located in a working-class neighbourhood of Ghent, housed “drug traffickers.”

On Monday morning, the public prosecutor confirmed that armed men had entered a flat and taken a hostage. “I would like to insist that there seems to be no correlation with terrorists or with the Islamic State. This has also nothing to do with what is happening today in Sydney,” stressed a spokesperson for the public prosecutor, trying to reassure the international press covering the incident on site.

(Source: Belga)  


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