anchor: this is "dw news" live from berlin. a possible development. saudi arabia reportedly preparing to admit its own interrogateors played a role in the death. investigators entered the consulate and were searching for clues for the disappearance of jamal k khashoggi. gegerman policee say a a hostage taking i in the city of cologne

may have been a terrorist attack, the incident shut down the city's main train statation. one of the men involved in the september 11 attacks is released here and deported to his home country of morocco. flash floods in southwestern france kill at least 12 people as heavy rains turn rivers into raging torrents. severall villages are cutut off from the outside world. anchor: turkish police entered the consulate searching for clues in the disappearance of jamal khashoggi, prosecutors

went inside the compounund afte being c cared by saudi auththorities. outspokeken person entered the consulate two weeks ago and has not been seen since and comes amid growing pressure regarding the fate of the sauby reporter. cnn is reporting t that saudi arabia is prepaparing t to admi that khashoggi was killed during an interrogation by saudi officials that went wrong. and of course, that is a new development in this story tonight. we want to go to our correspondent in istanbul. we don't know any more about the report from cnn about saudi arabia possible apply preparing to admit that this was an interrogation that went wrong that became deadly for this journalist. let's talk about the consulate inside.

what are these investigators, we assume they are still investigating, what are they looking for? >> well, this s is a day turkis investigators have been waiting for, waiting for the saudis to give them permission to enter and searchh the consulate and t ask some questions to employees and staff. so this is the day this happened. the investigators went inside. the conontion iss this was a joint probe and we just heaeard from onene person familiar with ththe investigation on theurkish side t they have b been looooki forensic evidence and although the crime scene has been polluted, so it was very difficult to find anything over there, they say theyy sececured some evidence, butut they still need to do further tests before they would go public.

this person w was again speakin on the condition of staying anonymous. so the bigger q question all da was w what will this invesestign teteam still be able to f fd. as you mentioned, i it has b be two weeks since khashoggi went missing.g. and earlierer tododay as if to aa point there, very interestingly, cleaning crew went inside this building with mops and trash bags walking past the journalist and everyone w w wondering and debate started again over the credibility of this whole investigation. but now that it's started, something has to come out, some kind of forensic evidence or maybe a statement or maybe this report that cnn is reporting on now. >> it does beg the question, why even allow this investigation to start now if you are two weeks late and you are allowing

cleaning crews to go into what could be a crime scecene? reporter: well, maybe it is cnn reportrts. the sauaudis are slowlyy prepar for making a statatement for su a repoport explaining thth situation maybe blaming itt as cnn, and i quote on some rogue elemenen someone in thehe saudi killing teaeam orr kidnapping t that then commimied a mistake and accidentally killeled him o because the prpressure has been too mucch. they are asking for an investigigation in hihis disasappearance. the u.s. creating pressure. the world is basically demanding answerss from the s saudis. they need to deliviver and just can't make this whole scandal go away. anchchor: thank you.

u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo is on his way to saudi arabia to discuss the case with king solomon. president trump said he is sending pompeo after he spoke earlier todayay with the saudi leaderer. take a listen. >> we are goioi to leave nothing uncovered. with that being said, thehe kin denied any knowledge of it. he didn't really no know. i don't want to get into his mind but sounded like it could be rogue killers. who knows. we will get to the bottom of it. but his was a flat denial. anchor: we take this story to washington d.c. good evening to you. this possible breaking news story that saudi arabia reportedly planning to admit that its interrogators were part

of the killing of this journalist, has there been any reaction in washington to this report? reporter: no. not so far. not until now as of yet. there is no reaction from the white house. the administration or any of the parties, democrats, republicans, senate or house whatsoever. this cnn report relating this on two sources that the saudis may be prepared to admit to an interrogation going wrong and makes the president looks outdated with his alternative narrative that maybe rogue killers or somebody rogue was involved in this. but we'll see. this is still speculation, two sources claim cnn claims and see what will come out of there. anchor: a developing story. our correspondent on the story

for us in washington. thank you. police here in germany say they have not ruled out the possibility that a hostage taking today was motivated by teterrorism. and hahappened in cologne. the police stormed a pharmacy to free a hostage that was being held for two hours. security forces left the suspect seriously injured. we understand the hostage had light wounds. police combed the station for clues about what could have been the suspect's motives. >> what makes us think it was more than a hostage taking that he had flammable liquid and several gas cannisters. the small ones used for camping. this was in the area where he was holding the hostage. two of the gas cannisters were

strapped together with duct tape. anchor: we are going to take this over to our correspondent who is in cologne. good evening to you, david. what we just heard from police, that gives us more information and some clues into their thinking. what else do you know about the suspect? reporter: well, as w we heard therere, the fact t they found many gas and is t terse, sugges this couldld have been a much me serious i incident. what we also k know is thatt t suspect claimeded to be a membe of the j jihadi terroror group islami state. police are trying to confnfirm what's behind those clalaims. and we also know following the incident, police found an identity document belonging to a sysyrian citizenen who was livin cologngne. they are reluctant to o say

whether those documentsts belon to the suspect but they believe that is the likelihood. anchor: we understand that the suspect was allegedly involved in another incident at the train station earlier today. what happened therere reporter: that's right. so just before the hostage incident, the suspect threw some sort of flammable or explosive, a mola to have cocktail into a fast food restaurant inside the train station. a witness told me earlier she saw two victims run out of the fast food restaurant, one of them a teenaged girl whose leg was on fire. she was on fire up until her waist. that girl has since been taking to the hospital where she is receiving treatment. anchor: david martin on the story for us tonight in cologne. germany's governing coalition is

facing an uncertain future after merkel's allies in bavara suffered losses yesterday. the leaders of the coalition parties are meeting to decide how to go forward. angela merkel has promised to do more to win back voters' trust. reporter: berlin the morning after. the state elections made one thing very clear, germans arere fed up with their coalition government. anyone who hasn't heard the warning must know this wasn't a dummy shot but cannon fire. one thing that is clear, things can't go on the way they are. merkel has been on the end of sharp criticism, she sees mistakes being responsible.

>> looking back at the formation of the government in the last 12 months, it's clear people have lost a lot of trust in us and goes for the union parties where you would expect common ground. and that's why until now we have not been able to be clear about what the grand coalition has achieved so far. reporter: but it was the social dedemocrats losing half of thei voters in bavaria. it's difficult to justify whether they are propping up the coalition government. >> what can we do better? what must we avoid? we don't't have control. the government's image contributed to the fact that issues important to us and to the people didn't get through. reporter: a new poll suggested

88% of the party members would prefer to leave the grand coalition. senior figures are wondering whether it would be better to stay or go. >> what is clear is just because its members had good reasons for joining the coalition, not to leave the country at the mercy of the right wing doesn't mean it will stay in at all costs. reporter: the liberals who scraped their way into parallelment are ready to capitalize on any collapse. >> we are prepared for it to fall apart and everything that scenarioio couould bring. reporter: the debate continues to simmer behind the scenes. come the next elections, things could welcome to a head. anchor: voters go to the polls later this month if the polls are right, germany's coalition parties are set to suffer

further heavy losses. more to talk about the fate of this government, i'm joined by a member of the c.d.u. and a member of the german parliament. good to see you again. what happened in bavaria yesterday, unprecedented. your sister party got only 41%. never seen anything that low. two weeks' time, you are expecting another unprecedented loss. how many more hits can you take before you say we are no longer qualified to govern? >> the results yesterday were quite bad. it was unsatisfying. but we'll see different results because we have a good government from c.d.u. ththey did very good work in th last years. i think the results will be much better than we have seen last sunday. anchor: explain to our viewers, what is the logic there then?

if not so bad results in one state after you have had horrible results in your larger states,, how could that be a god development? >> the performance in berlin was not that good in the last month. we developed step by step, the issues in our coalition treaty, but we had lots of argues and different opinions in the government and that's not something the voters like. anchor: we heard last night after the vote in bavaria from all of the parties. the blame game. and what i'm interested, they wanted to blame the government here in berlin. can't the chancellor, can't she do something there to stop that? can't she basically fire her interior minister who has been the thorn in her side in bavara the whole time? >> the strongest thing she can do is convince her minimums sters. that's the strength she has.

anchor: does she have the strength and power now in her fourth term? >> i think so. and we have good coalition treaty and we solved a lot of problems. we have a new master plan of immigration, our interior minister has to elaboborate ste by step. there is a lot of work in front of us. we havave done many steps, i thk the coalition has this package of work in the next month so it should be better not arguing or dispute, that should work and bring our situation to a much better condition. anchor: the master plan was presented before the elections in bavaria and had huge losses. in two weeks' time, why are you going to have results? >> the problem wasn't that but we don't have unity in the coalition, between the conservative party and we have to bring this unity back to our coalition and we will see better

results. i think the issues that we work on are quite good. anchor: the current government, we know there is after the first two years of this government, there is a time-out where you re-evaluate things. is that going to be the time when merkel is going to parachute out and maybe the government as we know it now will end? is that what we are aiming for? >> i don't think so. nobody in the coalition has an interest in ending this coalition or government. the socialist party, they are something around 10%, 12%, 13%. we are in the situation where we have to strengthen our positions so nobody in this coalition has got really an interest in ending it. just in the whole parliament, the ultraright-wing party has an interest in it. anchor: when the world looks at the this, is germany still

reliable, still stable, is it the rock of europe? >> definitely. i think germany is playing a leading role in the european union. we are bringing things forward in the migration issue, and supporting the commission by its plan step by step. ii think we are taking burden sharing on military issues and its 2% target over nato in the budget next week. so in the end, we are doing our part in the european union. but on the other side, i think our government, our coalition has too much discussions about the important issues and that has to be ended. anchor: what should start happening tomorrow in your opinion to ensure this government does not collapse? >> tomorrow we have to show that we go to work, do our things that the voters voted us for and we as a party, we have to concentrate in the elections in hessen. we want to show this government

has done a lot of good work. they have done very proper coalition. it is important that the voters will recognize that in the elections in two weeks. anchor: we will hold you to it. we appreciate you coming in and talking with us. thank you. germany has released an accomplice in the september 11 attacks in the united states and deported him to more ocko. el-motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in jail. for his role in the deaths of 246 people on board the plane -- one of the planes used in those attacks. he will not be allowed to return to germany until he is at least 90 years oldld.. reporter: on 9/11, 2001, al qaeda terrorists took control of

four passenger planes full of civilians and flew them into the world trade center and pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in pennsylvania. roughly 3,000 people were killed. the terrorist attacks were the largest ever on u.s. soil. and put into action by a group of young men knonown as the hamburg terror cell. the student was sentenced in the connection with the attacks. took five years to convict him and sentenced to 15 years for being an access other of the murders of 246 people and membership of a terrorist organization. motassadeq he never denied being friends with the hijackersrs an said he knew nothing of their 9/11 plalans. he was brought from this prison in hamburg to the airport for deportation in morocco and banned from returning until his

90th birthday. back home, his wife and chihildn are thought to be waiting for him. anchor: we have business news and david, a lot of americans never thought they would see an institution, a retail institution is bankrupt. reporter: it is a painful story for many of us including me who knows. sears, the dominant chain has filed for bankruptcy. the 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and drowning in debt. the final straw was a payment due monday. sears' holdings, the parent company of sears and k mart was among dozens of retailers to declare bankruptcy in thehe aman era. think of sears as amazon. s catals were a ssati

splusing americans to mass-produced goods for the first timime. eventually sears became the largest retailer in the country. sears helped transform america's shopping habits drawing customers from their cars to the shopping malls shooting up around the country in the 19 0's. over the years, sears has had more products than customers as it was outfoxed by other retailers and made a number of strategic errors. >> it't's not really a place whe people have been buying lots of things. probably a decade ago when it came out and sears merged, two haves don't make a whole. it is a dripping away of a business. reporter: sears has been closing stores at a break-neck pace all year but is looking for a buyer

for the 700 that remain open. observers now say even a bankruptcy will fail to save the name and that the company is likely to follow a number of other recent u.s. store chains into the retailers' grave yard. reporter: we are joined by our financial correspondent at the new york stock exchange. let's see the options for sears. is there any chance for the company to bounce back under chapter 11, for example? >> brick and mortar is a business not easy to be in but it is not impossible to get out of this bankruptcy process. what they are trying to do right now is get rid of as many as possible, unprofitable stores that will be 140 store closings

within the next three or so. they have closed 3,000 stores in the past seven -- seven stores years. and lamb pert, hedge fund manager who pumped billions of dollars into sears. it will depend if he would be willing to spend more money. it is not impossible, but certainly not going to be -- reporter: latest retail figures are being published, what is happening in the rest of the retail sector right now? >> well, it's surprisingly weak. and retail sales only increasing by .1%. so maybe it is partly due because of hurricane florence hitting the southeast of the united states. we saw especially sales in bars,

restaurants and department stores dropping quite a bit. overall analysts are pretty optimistic we will see a pretty good holiday season with unemployment rates being at the their lowest rate in almost 50 years. reporter: thank you very much for the analysis. now going to hand you back to brent for news about the floods in france. anchor: at least 12 people have died in southwestern france. it was the equivalent of several months of rain fell in just a few hours. reporter: when it happened, it happened fast. several months of rain falling in just a few hours in southwest france turned rivers into raging destruction. it started at 2:00 a.m. raining, raining, raining.

we heard rushing water. i turned on the light and it didi't work. it was dark. i get out of bed andnd my feet e in the water. i go towards the kitchen and try to open the door. it's impossible. i forced it open and then there was water up to my waist. such rapid rainfall took a and e of the victims was swept away while s sleeping. helicopts helpeped to rescue people from roofs, struggled with bad weather which made operations difficult. 250 firemen and police have been deployed for the rescue effort. >> it was really traumatizing. all of our neighbors were in the same situation. it happened so fast when they responded. there was a wave that came towards our front door. the entire house was flooded. the waters rose to my thighs.

reporter: floodwaters have swept everything in their path, trees, cacars. the regegion is better known fo its towns than for flooding. the worse the area has seen in 100 years. anchor: you are watching "dw news." i will take you back through the day. stick around for that. .

in my life. i'm i'm going because they had the headlights flash flood [inaudible] well. interest rate range the river the tab rose rose a sixty meters to the left. because sure sure okay let. me see and tell. to lacey lacey this is joe joe this is a life. that they think