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 | | Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 14:37 GMT 15:37 UK Car chase gunmen face charges  Kerstin Gehrke, left: Gun to her head for 24 hours Ukrainian police have opened a criminal investigation into three armed men arrested on Wednesday after after a two-day car chase through Germany and Poland. They face charges of illegally crossing the border, illegal possession of guns, and keeping a hostage. However, German police are also expected to arrive in the Ukrainian town of Rivne, where the chase ended, to start extradition proceedings. Click here to see the robbers' route The three Russian-speaking men have been identified as German citizens, two of whom were born in Kazakhstan. German police raided their apartments in the northern German city of Lueneburg. A woman who was taken hostage as the men raided a bank in the nearby city of Wrestedt on Tuesday night was recovering at the German embassy in Kiev on Thursday, after being escorted there from Rivne by the German ambassador. Shock Kerstin Gehrke, aged 26, was initially reported to have been in a state of shock after having a pistol held to her head for more than 24 hours. The robbers initially took two women hostage, as well as seizing 300,000 euros, but one managed to escape during a stop near Lublin, in Poland. A Ukrainian police spokesman said riot police and snipers had been lying in wait when the robbers eventually came to a halt after the 1,000km (620-mile) pursuit. Police had held back from stopping the car, in anticipation that it would need a break to refuel. The gunmen are still being held at a remand centre near Rivne. Zigzag chase
Oleksandr Hapon - who led the operation to free the hostage - said he conducted negotiations with the robbers by phone, after police gave them a cellular phone in Lutsk. "I talked to them as a father. We used psychological pressure. That's our job," Mr Hapon was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying. Earlier, Polish police explained why they did not stop the gunmen on their territory. "We could have stopped them many times, but the question is at what price?" Polish Interior Minister Krysztof Janik told Polish Radio "We chose the health and life of innocent people." Shooting at a car driving at 150km (92 miles) per hour would have been "unacceptable", he said. The silver Seat was spotted crossing the eastern Polish city of Lublin at 0800 GMT on Wednesday. Police helicopters and about 20 vehicles, including some from Germany, followed the car as it then zigzagged across Europe into Poland and then Ukraine.  | |
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