The World - News from Aug. 21, 1988

Relatives of a West German teen-age hostage killed during a shoot-out between bandits and police say they are taking legal action against law enforcement officials over the gun battle that ended a 54-hour hostage-taking spree. “She (hostage Silke Bischof) would still be alive today if police had acted in a different way,” said attorney Gerold Bischof, uncle of the 18-year-old Bremen woman. Thursday’s gun battle on a highway near Bonn ended a bloody rampage across West Germany and the Netherlands by two bank robbers and a female accomplice. Investigators say they are certain Bischof was killed by a gun fired by one of the bandits in the getaway car and not by police cross-fire.