Man With Knife Takes German Kids Hostage

ENNEPETAL, Germany — A man armed with two knives pulled several schoolchildren off a public bus in a northwest German town Tuesday and forced at least four of them into a nearby house, which police quickly surrounded, authorities said.

The mother of one of the children who escaped from the bus said the man told them he wanted to bring his family to Germany from Iran.

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Police commandos, including sharpshooters, surrounded the single-family house, and the area was sealed off.

Renate Schulte said her 16-year-old son, Marvin, who escaped after the man forced the bus driver to stop, told her that the man read a statement in the bus saying his children were in Iran and he wanted to be allowed to bring them to Germany.

The man then herded some of the children into the back of the bus and tied nine or 10 of them together by their belt buckles with a cord.

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