A hostage situation at a German bank ended Friday after a special police unit freed two people unharmed from a vault, but the suspects escaped and are on the run, police said.
Officers entered the bank branch in the western town of Sinzig but there was no sign of any suspects, police said.
Investigators now believe that "immediately after locking the individuals in the vault, the perpetrator or perpetrators left the scene by means as yet unknown", they said in a statement.
Bank robbers earlier took multiple hostages in the western German town of Sinzig on Friday, police said, with several heavily armed officers surrounding the bank.
Police said there were believed to be "several hostage-takers and hostages inside the bank," and that the driver of a cash transport vehicle was among those being held.
According to the Bild newspaper, the occupant of an armoured van was intercepted and threatened in front of the bank in the standoff that started around 9 am local time on Friday.
The hostage takers and at least one captive were believed to be holed up inside the bank's vault, the report added, without citing a source.
The small town of Sinzig is located just west of the Rhine River, roughly halfway between the cities of Bonn and Koblenz in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Police were withholding details for "tactical reasons," a spokesperson told news weekly Der Spiegel, as it could not be ruled out that the hostage takers were reading online news reports.
In late 2025, a bank robbery took place in Gelsenkirchen, another city in western Germany, resulting in losses of €30 million, according to police.
