Authorities: hostage taker Cologne is a Syrian refugee

The German authorities have established the identity of the hostage taker who was arrested in Cologne.

The Syrian was seriously injured on Monday when the police intervened at the train station in the city. The man, a friend of the police, had thrown a Molotov cocktail in a fast food restaurant at the station. A fourteen-year-old girl was injured there. The Syrian then hosted a woman in a pharmacy. Agents shot him later.

Agents later invaded the man's home in a shelter for refugees. That is where researchers put their hand on evidence. The police have not yet been able to hear the Syrian, but he thinks he had not planned the hostage. The McDonald's would have been his target, but sprinklers sprang up.