Dutch girl, 3, and divorced dad dead after he takes her hostage

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The police have found the bodies of a man and his three-year-old daughter after storming a home in the Netherlands, scene of an hours-long hostage drama on Thursday, the police and media said.

"The bodies of the hostage-taker and a three-year-old girl have been found in the home," local news channel L1 reported, quoting the mayor of Reuver, a small town about 200km south-east of Amsterdam.

The hostage crisis began in the morning when the divorced man shot a woman, believed to be his former wife, in the leg and fled into the home with the toddler, the police said.

Police stormed the home around 2.45pm after which explosions and at least two shots were heard.

Shortly afterwards, television pictures showed paramedics removing the bodies from the home.

The Netherlands was shaken in May by the murder of two young brothers aged seven and nine by their father, who killed them and dumped their bodies in a ditch near the Rhine river.

The father then committed suicide.

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