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Kidnappers in Germany have abducted the heir to a private banking dynasty and are keeping the 11-year-old boy captive despite payment of a $2 million ransom.
Jakob von Metzler, whose father Friedrich is the chief of one of Germany's oldest private banks, was last seen on Friday walking back after school to his home in the wealthy Frankfurt suburb of Sachsenhausen, police said after a three-day news blackout.
Within an hour of the last sighting, a letter arrived at Jakob's home demanding around $2 million.
Police, who have detained two people, said they had no idea where Jakob was being held.
"Jakob von Metzler has not been released by his kidnappers. His whereabouts are not known," a police statement said.
Friedrich von Metzler heads Metzler, a private bank which has passed through 11 family generations dating back to 1674, and is known as an art lover in the Frankfurt area.
It is not the first high-profile kidnapping in Germany, which was hit by a number of kidnappings carried out by the far-left Baader Meinhof gang in the 1970s.
In 1996, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, heir to a German tobacco fortune was abducted in one of Germany's most high-profile kidnappings. He was released after 33 days with his family paying a record ransom of $14.3 million.
© Reuters
