German man charged with kidnapping after supermarket hostage incident in Berlin

German authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a 29-year-old man who is accused of holding a woman hostage in a Berlin supermarket for more than 11 hours over the weekend.

The man was charged on Sunday with kidnapping for ransom, in conjunction with attempted aggravated extortion and dangerous bodily harm.

The man allegedly took the female supermarket employee hostage and threatened her inside a shop in Berlin’s southern Marienfelde neighbourhood on Friday evening shortly after 10pm local time. A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office said he had held the woman at knifepoint.

After negotiations failed to persuade him to turn himself in, special forces freed the woman in a special operation involving a taser shortly after 9am the next morning.

The woman was taken to a hospital but did not sustain injuries, according to prosecutors.

The suspected hostage-taker sustained minor injuries during the operation and was also taken to a hospital before being placed in police custody, the police said.