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world news DIAHUEBS 22 JULI 2021

2 guards taken hostage by inmates at prison in Sweden

(AP) — Two inmates took
a pair of prison guards
hostage Wednesday at a
Swedish penitentiary and
are barricaded inside in
what the country’s prison
department called “a very
dangerous situation.”

The inmates abducted the
prison officers after breaking
into a guards’ room soon af-
ter midday and covering up
the surveillance cameras, the
Swedish Prison and Proba-
tion Service said. Negotiators
and police were at the prison
“and the situation is frozen,” murder sentences, TT re- years old and allegedly were hostages in exchange for hav- ery to the prison.
acting security chief Jorgen ported. Swedish media say armed with razor blades ing 20 kebab pizzas distrib-
From Nordin told Swedish they have demanded a heli- when they broke into the uted to other inmates. Afton- The penitentiary is located
news agency TT. copter to help them escape. guards’ room. bladet published photos of a near Eskilstuna, some 120
local pizza parlor preparing kilometers (75 miles) west of
The prisoners are serving Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet The newspaper said they of- and loading pizzas into a car Sweden’s capital, Stockholm.
said the men are 30 and 24 fered to release one of the and said they were for deliv-

German Cabinet approves some $472 million in first flood aid

“And at the moment I really such as floods, which many ($4.7 to 5.9 billion) in the
don’t have time to look for in Germany are not, though two German states that suf-
it,” the 47-year-old said wea- insurance likely will be taken fered the worst damage.
rily, as helpers carried mud- into account in determining
caked debris from the house. details. Merkel has expressed It will likely exceed the dam-
skepticism about making age of 4.65 billion euros
Germany has recent experi- such insurance obligatory, caused by flooding in 2002
ence with major floods that arguing that it could produce that submerged parts of
hit swaths of the country, par- unaffordable premiums, but Dresden and other eastern
ticularly the east, in 2002 and some other German officials German areas, German In-
2013. They caused extensive advocate it. surance Association chief ex-
and costly damage. Howev- ecutive Joerg Asmussen said.
er, the death tolls were par- Seehofer said there will have That, he added, makes what
ticularly high in last week’s to be “a broad debate about happened last week “one of
floods, which were the worst safeguard systems” for the the most devastating storms
in living memory in the areas future given that natural di- of the recent past.”
(AP) — Germany’s Cabi- 31 died in neighboring Bel- they hit. sasters are likely to become
net on Wednesday ap- gium, bringing the death toll more frequent and more de- Last week’s flooding also hit
proved a roughly 400 mil- in both countries to 202. Scholz said the govern- structive. the southern Netherlands
lion-euro ($472 million) ment aid for rebuilding after in the province of Limburg,
package of immediate The deluges also destroyed the 2013 floods has totaled Scholz concurred, adding: though there were no casu-
aid for flood victims and or severely damaged homes, around 6 billion euros ($7 “in terms of what’s going alties there. The mayor of
vowed to start quickly on businesses and infrastruc- billion) so far and more aid on now, we have to help. I Valkenburg, Daan Prevoo,
rebuilding devastated ar- ture. Authorities in the af- might be required this time. would argue against being said about 700 homes in the
eas, a task whose cost is ex- fected states are responsible cynical and being heartless. town were so badly damaged
pected to be well into the for details of who receives “There is nothing we need This is a big disaster, we have that their owners will have to
billions. how much aid and how, but to delay,” he told report- to help and that has to be the seek temporary accommoda-
Scholz said they have indi- ers in Berlin. “The pledge first priority, rather than any tions while they are repaired.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz cated it will be “a very unbu- we want to give now is that principles.”
said the package, financed reaucratic process” that in- this help with rebuilding can He estimated the cost of
half by Chancellor Angela volves no means-testing. begin straight away...so that The head of an organization damage to homes and busi-
Merkel’s federal government everything necessary can be representing German insur- nesses in Valkenburg to be
and half by Germany’s state “It’s necessary to send a mes- done to restore infrastruc- ance companies said it ex- around 400 million euros
governments, to help people sage quickly that there is a ture, damaged houses, dam- pects insured damage to total ($472 million).
deal with the immediate af- future, that we are taking aged schools, hospitals, put 4 billion to 5 billion euros
termath of last week’s flood- care of it together, that this is in order anything that was
ing would increase if more a matter for us as the whole destroyed there.”
money is needed. country to help with,” he
added. Interior Minister Horst See-
“We will do what is necessary hofer said he hopes for a
to help everyone as quickly as Heiko Lemke said his family rough assessment of the dam-
possible,” Scholz said. wasn’t insured for the dam- age by the end of the month,
age caused when the Ahr riv- after which federal officials
At least 171 people were killed er flooded the entire ground and state governors will meet
in Germany, well over half of floor of their duplex house in to discuss the way forward.
them in Ahrweiler county, the town of Sinzig.
near Bonn. when small riv- He and Scholz indicated that
ers swelled quickly into rag- So far nobody has told the people can expect reconstruc-
ing torrents on Wednesday Lemkes where to apply for tion aid whether or not they
and Thursday following per- government aid. were insured for “elemen-
sistent downpours. Another tary damage” from events