Brussels - A 20-Hour Hotel Hostage Drama That Sarted On Shabbos Sans Violence

Brussels - A 55-year-old man who held his two-year-old daughter hostage on the 17th floor of the Tulip Inn hotel at Place Rogier in central Brussels, demanding medical help for her is being questioned now by police after they ended the siege without violence.

The man who is not Belgian, had threatened to blow up his hotel room, because he was trying to get specialist medical help for the girl who he said has a heart condition and couldn't. But doctors who examined the girl said she was in good health, and police said they found no weapons or explosives in the hotel.

Police have not confirmed the man's identity or nationality but said the man was Jewish and police had asked a rabbi in the nearby city of Antwerp to negotiate with him but the hostage situation had ended before he could arrive.

The hotel and two nearby buildings were evacuated.