The four people held hostage in a café in Ede in the early hours of Saturday morning did not know the person who held them there, they have said in a statement released via victims support group Namens de Familie.

Nor do the four, a co-owner and three workers, know what the hostage taker’s motive was, they say.

The hostage-taking ended peacefully some seven hours after it began when the hostage taker, a 28-year-old man from the Gelderland town, released the three bar staff, then the co-owner and then gave himself up.

He had been armed with several knives but was not carrying explosives as police feared might be the case.

The other owner, named by the Telegraaf as Kevin, said he had seen the hostage taker standing outside the bar when he left at around 4 am. “He was motionless and staring straight ahead but I did not get any sense of danger from him or I would have sent him on his way,” Kevin told the paper.

Police have confirmed they were monitoring what was going on inside the Petticoat café for most of the stand-off. Kevin had alerted them after doing a last check via a mobile phone link to the security cameras at around 5 am and realizing the staff were sitting on the floor and acting strangely.

The hostage taker will appear in court for a remand hearing on Tuesday.