RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - The Latest on a hostage taking on a bus in Brazil (all times local):
10:15 a.m.
Rio de Janeiro’s state governor says an armed man who took dozens of hostages on a bus has died after being shot by police following a four-hour long standoff.
Gov. Wilson Witzel said the hostages were freed after Tuesday’s incident. The man armed with a gun and a knife took 37 people hostage around 5:30 a.m. on a busy bridge linking the suburb of Sao Gonçalo to downtown Rio de Janeiro.
Police say hostages told them the man had spilled gasoline in the bus and was threatened to set it on fire.
Hans Moreno, one of the hostages onboard, said on TV Globo the man was not behaving in an aggressive way and was “very calm.”
Sao Gonçalo is a violent, impoverished suburb separated from Rio by Guanabara Bay. Many use the bridge to go to and from work.
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9:35 a.m.
Brazilian television is showing an armed hostage-taker leaving a bus with dozens of passengers on board and being encircled by police after a standoff in Rio de Janeiro. It was unclear if he was injured or dead.
Brazilian police say the man had threatened to set fire to the vehicle which had 37 people on board. The hostage taking started at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday on a busy bridge linking the suburb of Sao Gonçalo to downtown Rio de Janeiro.
Police said they told authorities the man had spilled gasoline in the bus and threatened to set it on fire. Officials said the man has identified himself as a policeman but this has not been confirmed.
The man has not made any particular demands and appears to have “psychological problems,” a spokesperson for the traffic police said on TV Globo.
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9:00 a.m.
An armed man was holding dozens of people hostage on a public bus Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro and threatening to set the vehicle on fire, Brazilian police said.
The Federal Highway Police said negotiations were underway with the man who has been holding 37 people hostage since about 5:30 a.m. on a busy bridge linking the suburb of Sao Gonçalo to downtown Rio de Janeiro.
At least six hostages have been released so far and police said they told authorities the man had spilled gasoline in the bus and threatened to set it on fire. Officials said the man has identified himself as a policeman but this has not been confirmed. He reportedly has a gun and a knife.
The man has not made any particular demands and appears to have “psychological problems,” a spokesperson for the traffic police said on TV Globo.
Rio’s elite police force known as BOPE is in charge of the negotiations. A sniper has been placed nearby. Traffic has been blocked in both directions on the bridge, with hundreds of vehicles waiting in line.
Sao Gonçalo is a violent, impoverished suburb separated from Rio by Guanabara Bay.
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