Germany: prisoner shot dead after taking jail worker hostage

BERLIN – A prison inmate was shot fatally by police in western Germany on Friday after he took a jail employee hostage and threatened to kill her, authorities said.

The 40-year-old man threatened the employee, a 29-year-old woman, with a razor blade and demanded a helicopter to take him away from the prison in Muenster, police and prosecutors said in a statement.

Police attempted to negotiate with the prisoner, but he repeatedly threatened to kill his hostage and appeared “psychologically unpredictable,” they added.

Special forces then freed the woman, who sustained only slight injuries to her neck.

The prisoner died from his injuries at the scene. Authorities said he was serving a four-month sentence for resisting enforcement officers that would have ended on Nov. 10.