From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Police Free Luxembourg Hostages
By PAUL AMES
.c The Associated Press
WASSERBILLIG, Luxembourg (AP) - Police stormed a day care center today,
shooting a hostage-taker and freeing 25 children and three teachers and
ending a 30-hour standoff. All those freed were reported safe.
``Everything is over. Everybody is fine,'' said Jose Lello, a Portuguese
minister who came to Luxembourg because many of the children hostages were
Portuguese.
The assault on the center started with two shots before security officials
stormed the building. Several more explosions were heard, possibly from smoke
bombs. Afterward, there were conflicting reports about the fate of the
hostage-taker.
Local councilman Jean Keyser said the hostage taker ``was shot but not
dead,'' and Portuguese official Manuel Casanova said the gunman was shot in
the head and critically wounded. But Lello told reporters the 39-year-old
gunman was killed.
The children were taken to a crisis center where the parents were being
counseled. Casanova said ``there were immediate outbursts of joy'' when
families of captives heard about the successful raid. ``It was very
emotional,'' he said.
Shortly after the day care center was stormed, two helicopters flew low near
the building, but it was unclear what they were carrying.
Police and psychiatrists had struggled for most of the day to convince the
lone hostage-taker brandishing a gun and grenade to release the captives and
drop his demand to fly to Libya.
Police said the man has a history of mental illness, and residents of this
small town near the German border said he blamed the day care center for the
fact that he lost custody of his two children.
The standoff began Wednesday afternoon. The man seized 37 children at the day
care center in Wasserbillig, a town of 2,300 people in eastern Luxembourg. A
teacher managed to smuggle six or seven other children out of the center just
after the hostage-taker entered the building, police said.
Parents of the captive children were counseled by police psychologists at a
local art building which was converted to a crisis center. They were kept
informed throughout the night by regular police updates, said Joao Carlos
Alves Pereira, whose 7-year-old daughter had been among the captives.
``When I heard about it, I just about went crazy. I just couldn't sleep,''
Pereira, who spent the night in the crisis center, said before the children
were released.
Late Wednesday night, the man released eight children, who were returned to
their parents in good condition. He then demanded the plane and $1.38
million, but he later dropped his demand for the money, police divisional
commissioner Andree Colas said.
In the hours before police stormed the center, the gunman had released four
more children.
The standoff shocked this normally quiet corner of Europe. Violent crimes are
rare in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which lies between Belgium, Germany
and France.
``I was working. I didn't know anything about it. I got home, and the police
were everywhere,'' said Seraphine Freitas, the father of two children, ages 7
and 8, who were among the hostages.
Authorities believe the kidnapper's own two children had at one time attended
the same day care center, located behind the town square in a quiet, secluded
residential neighborhood.
They said the man was married and came from a neighboring village. Local
residents said he blamed the day care center and held a grudge against its
director for the fact that he lost custody of his children when he separated
from his wife.
Kenneth Pantling
Whatever happens they have got
The Maxim Gun, and we have not.
--
Police End Hostage Drama by Shooting Gunman
WASSERBILLIG, Luxembourg (Reuters) - Police shot and wounded a lone
gunman and freed his 28 hostages, including 25 children, ending a
28-hour siege at a daycare center in Luxembourg, a police spokesman said.
A police spokesman said the gunman was seriously wounded and dying
after earlier reports said he had been shot dead.
``He is dying, not dead. He is in a very bad condition but not dead,''
the spokesman said.
``All hostages are safe and well...,'' he added.
Police backed by special forces ended the tense stand-off in Wasserbillig,
with a population of 2,500 on the border with Germany, after the
Tunisian-born gunman seized the hostages on Wednesday and demanded a
plane to fly him to Libya.
The police spokesman said the gunman had wanted to make a statement to
the media and had agreed to leave the building. He was shot as he left
the building with two hostages.
``He was neutralized by special units on the spot,'' the spokesman said.
Eyewitnesses heard shooting and then saw children leaving the building.
Police said the man had been armed with a pistol, grenade and knife.
The gunman, whose own two children used to play at the day-care center,
allowed four children all aged three or four -- to walk free Thursday.
He also released 17 hostages Wednesday but did not drop his demands for
the plane to fly him to Libya, police said.
Police said the gunman in his late 30s had become tired and was on edge
after a sleepless night watching over his prisoners. Police said he also
had a history of mental problems.
``The hostage-taker got more and more nervous...and got more and more
exhausted,'' the spokesman said.
The hostages had included 13 children of Portuguese nationality.
Police said the gunman was previously known to the authorities but gave
no details. Local residents said his children, now teenagers, had
attended the day-center until 1995 before they were taken into care by
social services.
--
Luxembourg has some of the toughest gun laws on the planet, getting
authority for anything other than a .22 is basically impossible, and
getting a .22 is extremely difficult.
Steve.
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