The police cordoned off the area, as Markus Gossen, head of police operations, said in the evening. The fire brigade finally got the woman out of the building through a window on the first floor. The 26-year-old man also left the house. The 37-year-old was still in the building and did not react to announcements by the special forces, as Scholten explained. The SEK then went into the building under breathing protection and arrested the man who was said to be the source of the threat.

Lots of blue lights in the darkness, loudspeaker announcements - this brought back partly unpleasant memories of the flood disaster in 2021 and the search for an armed man after shots were fired in nearby Vinegar to the residents.

The morning after, things are quiet again. The road is one of the main accesses to the village, with residential houses to the right and left. On Tuesday, the lower windows of the house where the shooting took place were smashed and only remnants of the windows were still hanging in the frames.

Prisca Laser lives close to the crime scene. She was out for a short walk in the evening and had already seen the fire brigade. She thought it was just a small fire. Then she heard loudspeaker announcements. "Come out of there with your hands up," she recalls the announcement in conversation with the GA. It takes her a moment to understand that the request is not for her at all. "That's when I panicked because it reminded me a lot of the flood night." She had barricaded herself in the house, lowered the blinds, tilted only one window so that she could understand any announcements. "It happened in quick succession," she says, describing the events. The police smashed the windows, "it rattled so much". And then everything "suddenly" dissolved.

Many people in Odendorf apparently lacked the necessary information about what exactly was happening. The rumour "hostage-taking" appeared in Facebook groups, and in other places in the village there was talk of a rampage. Laser criticises: "There was no warning for the residents from the authorities and the emergency services." Since the flood disaster, many people in Odendorf are particularly sensitive about this. Laser also remembers the search for the perpetrators after the shooting in Essig. There, too, one could only wait for the all-clear.

Police spokesperson Beyer explained to the GA that the fact that there was no information for the surrounding neighbourhood was normal procedure. The threat had been in a private living space. There had been no danger to third parties.

He was "already upset", is how another resident described his feelings that evening. He lives just across the street, but would rather not give his name. The whole street was full of emergency services. He remembers that it started with smoke and that the upper windows were fogged up. Someone must have informed the fire brigade. Later, the resident heard loud shouting, he describes the day after. "And then there was a gunshot," he feels. However, the police could not confirm this the following day. Other witnesses report that stun grenades were used.

According to the fire brigade, the smoke was caused by wet wood in the chimney, says police spokesperson Beyer. The fire brigade took measurements and found toxic carbon monoxide. The operation ended at about 10 pm. No one was injured.

Resident Ernst Lülsdorf also reported on Tuesday that little was known about the incident in the evening itself. When he wanted to return home to Bendenweg on Monday evening, the road was closed. "But then they didn't want to tell us what it was about." He could have waited in the car, they said. Together with his wife, however, he then drove to Rheinbach. The couple followed the events in Odendorf via the reports in the General-Anzeiger until the all-clear was given. "That was very helpful for us," says Ernst Lülsdorf.

Original text: Juliane Hornstein and Axel Vogel

Translation: Mareike Graepel