Two German prison staff taken hostage by 2019 synagogue attacker

The right-wing extremist who carried out the deadly 2019 attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, briefly held two prison employees hostage and was injured as he was overpowered by other staff inside the facility near the city of Magdeburg.

Stephan Balliet, 30, had taken two staff members hostage at around 9 pm on Monday evening for about one hour, the Justice Ministry confirmed early Tuesday.

The staff members held hostage were not injured, it said.

It was initially unclear how Balliet was able to take the employees hostage at the prison in Burg, some 100 kilometres west of Berlin and a short distance from Magdeburg.

The incident triggered a large police operation. Investigations led by the State Criminal Office are underway inside the prison, which can accommodate more than 600 inmates.

On October 9, 2019, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Balliet tried to force his way into a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle using explosive devices and gunfire. When the door held, he shot dead two people nearby and injured two others as he fled.

He confessed to carrying out the attack. He was convicted and given a life sentence in 2020.

He is serving his sentence in the modern high-security facility in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The right-wing extremist is said to be an uncooperative and difficult inmate.

While on trial in 2020, Balliet tried to escape the jail he was being held at in Halle. During a yard exercise, he climbed over a 3.4-meter-high fence and spent five minutes looking for ways out of the prison grounds before being caught.