Bank Robberies West Germany

West German police shot and wounded two fleeing bank robbers Thursday after ambushing their car on a crowded highway near Bonn, thus ending a 55-hour hostage drama that left three people dead. An 18-year-old female hostage was killed in the final shoot-out. A second woman hostage and a female accomplice were wounded.

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.

Two fleeing West German bank robbers, after killing a teen-age hostage, crossed into the Netherlands in a hijacked bus, and then escaped in a car provided by Dutch officials, police said. They had an unidentified hostage with them, police added. The bandits earlier fatally shot a 15-year-old boy, one of 25 hostages on the bus, near Bremen before speeding off. Dutch police had surrounded the bus in the town of Hengelo.

West German police shot and wounded two fleeing bank robbers Thursday after ambushing their car on a crowded highway near Bonn, thus ending a 55-hour hostage drama that left three people dead. An 18-year-old female hostage was killed in the final shoot-out. A second woman hostage and a female accomplice were wounded.