Karl Munro and Stella Price
Coronation Street's killer Karl Munro is set to kidnap Stella Price and Dev Alahan.
The twisted firestarter - played by John Michie - holds his fiancee (Michelle Collins) and the widowed shop keeper (Jimmi Harkishin) hostage in the cellar of her Rovers Return pub, the same place he left Sunita Alahan (Shobna Gulati) to die, after the pair begin to discover the truth of his murderous ways.
Dev is soon left fighting for his own life after he confronts vicious Karl for killing Sunita by pulling out her ventilator tube while she led helpless in her hospital bed, where she was recovering following the fire which Karl started in the boozer earlier this year.
During the argument, Stella begs Karl to let her go and get help for Dev.
She screams: "Come on Karl, he might be dying."
However, after realising she can't fight her way out of the scary dilemma, she tries to charm Karl - who she is due to marry this summer - and attempts to get him onside instead.
She says: "I know the sacrifices you made. This is all a mess. The question is, how do we clear it up?"
John - who announced he would be bowing out of the soap in September to join 'Holby City' - is pleased with his exit storyline, but has confirmed his alter-ego will not be killed off.
He told the TV Times: "It's quite short and intense - a month of Karl ducking and diving, trying not to get caught.
"I think the writers have got his exit just right.
"He doesn't die, which is good. You never know, in a couple of years he might come back."
Tagged in Jimmi Harkishin Michelle Collins Shobna Gulati