German special police walks near the main train station in Cologne, Germany, October 15, 2018. (Photo: Reuters)

The 55-year-old suspect was shot during a rescue operation and is hospitalized in critical condition, Police Vice President Miriam Brauns told a news conference in Cologne. The woman who was held hostage by the suspect for almost two hours at a pharmacy inside Cologne’s main railway station sustained slight injuries.

Klaus Rueschenschmidt, head of operations at the police department, said the police found the ID of a Syrian refugee in the pharmacy and believe it belongs to the perpetrator.

The same day, Germany deported a Moroccan associate of the September 11 hijackers after he served most of a 15-year prison term for helping organize the 2001 attacks on US targets. Mounir El Motassadeq was a member of a group of radical Islamists based in Hamburg, Germany, who helped plan the suicide attacks involving hijacked airliners that killed nearly 3,000 people.

German media reported that Motassadeq was taken to Frankfurt to be deported to Morocco. At his 2007 trial, his lawyers argued that Motassadeq knew nothing about the September 11 plot. But prosecutors said he played a central role in suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta's group by running the financial affairs of some of the cell members.