Gunman arrested after taking passengers hostage on bus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Police
Police have not revealed the identity of the gunman or his intentions.
Rio de Janeiro:
The gunman who shot and wounded two people and took 17 passengers hostage at Rio de Janeiro’s main bus station on Tuesday surrendered and freed his captives after negotiations, Brazilian police said.
“The hostage taker surrendered, he was arrested, all the hostages were released, they are safe,” said Colonel Marco Andrade of the military police.
Earlier, police said agents from the elite Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) unit were “on site negotiating” after “a man shot two people and took hostages on a bus” at the Novo Rio bus station. “.
The injured were taken to the hospital.
A total of 17 people were detained, including children and elderly people, Andrade told reporters outside the station. He said one person was shot three times, while the other suffered minor injuries.
Police have not revealed the identity of the gunman or his intentions.
– ‘Everyone is desperate’ –
Images broadcast by the Globonews channel showed chaos at the station in the center of Rio, where buses depart for all regions of Brazil, and police deployed around the area.
“A man took out a gun, started shooting and entered the bus. I have two friends on this bus, everyone is desperate, we don’t know what will happen,” a witness told the broadcaster.
Television footage showed a blue bus stopped in the middle of an empty parking lot.
The terminal was closed after all passengers and staff were evacuated, AFP observed.
In 2000, two people died during a hostage situation on a bus in a residential area of Rio.
The incident captivated the entire nation as it was broadcast live on television for hours and inspired the 2008 film “Last Stop 174”.
In 2019, a hijacker armed with an imitation gun was shot dead by police in Rio after he held a bus full of passengers hostage for several hours on a major bridge connecting the city to Niterói.
Brazil’s most prestigious city, Rio de Janeiro has long been plagued by high crime rates linked to poverty and inequality.
Rio’s vast jungles, which fill the metropolitan area’s hills with often picture-postcard beaches and lush mountains, are hotbeds of gang and drug-related violence.
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