Hostage-taker in Germany allegedly demanded €7m

Karlsruhe, Germany (dpa) - According to a media report, the hostage taker at a pharmacy in the south-western German city of Karlsruhe is said to have demanded €7 million, reported dpa.

The owner of the pharmacy, Patrick Kwik, told broadcaster RTL so.

The police have not yet commented on the hostage-taker's demands. A spokesman also did not want to comment on the report on Sunday.

According to the interview, Kwik himself was one of the hostages. He said he wondered why the 20-year-old suspect had chosen his pharmacy of all places.

"As if we had so much money there," Kwik told the station, calling the suspected perpetrator a "nutcase."

He said his pharmacy had already been robbed once at the end of January. At that time, he said, officials had published the exact name of the shop - to make it easier to track down the perpetrator. This had annoyed him, said Kwik. He suspects that after the manhunt, the hostage-taker thought the pharmacy would be an easy target.