A young woman, who was kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to a homemade torture chamber rigged with bombs, escaped by diving out of a barbed wire-covered window while handcuffed, police say. The 26-year-old Israeli woman, who was not named, was taken hostage at gunpoint by an acquaintance, Thomas Fischer, at her flat in Hamburg, northern Germany, on Friday night. She was handcuffed and then taken to Mr Fischer's flat in Barmbek, a suburb of Hamburg, The Independent reported. But two hours later, she pushed her way out of a window barricaded with barbed wire, police said. Her hands still bound, she ran down the street to a friend's home with Mr Fischer, 30, chasing after her, Britain's Daily Mail reported. Neighbours called the police and, when officers confronted him at his home later, he was carrying a grenade and a nine-millimetre gun, investigators said. Before Friday, the pair had met through mutual friends and had seen each other only occasionally, German newspaper The Local reported. But Mr Fischer had been preparing a prison for her in his living room, police believed. Investigators, who said they were taking apart his ground-floor unit "piece by piece", found he had barricaded all the windows, The Local said. They found stockpiles of food, handcuffs, gynaecological equipment, an inflatable sex doll, a metal helmet and a phone booth, which they said had been modified into a soundproof cell. "It is evident the apartment was meant as a place of confinement for some time," the Mail quoted senior public prosecutor Wilhelm Mollers as saying. Police believed Mr Fischer may have practised using the gynaecological tools on the doll. In the building's basement, they located 113 fire extinguishers and homemade explosives made from fertiliser. Some of them were apparently rigged as booby-trapped bombs, police added. A police spokesman told German daily Die Welt: "We do not know what is going on with the fire extinguishers or whether they are related to the crime." A few days before Mr Fischer's arrest, neighbours saw him covering three windows at the back of his apartment with barbed wire, Die Welt reported. One neighbour told the newspaper he said he was protecting himself from burglars, who he claimed had already broken into his house three times. Police said Mr Fischer had not spoken to police since his arrest, The Local reported. Mr Fischer's father, Hans, told German tabloid Bild he "cannot believe" what happened. "My son was an honest boy; there has never been trouble with the police," he said. smh.com.au

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Woman escaped torture chamber by diving through barbed wire window: police AP