Tbilisi, Sept 20 (AFP\/APP): Police in Georgia on Tuesday freed 14 hostages who were held by an armed man at a bank in the country’s second-largest city of Kutaisi, officials said.<\/p>\n
“All the 14 hostages were freed and the hostage-taker arrested,” the Black Sea nation’s interior ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It had said earlier on Tuesday that an armed man took 12 people hostage and demanded a large sum of money at a Bank of Georgia branch in the city of around 150,000 people in central Georgia.<\/p>\n
An investigation was opened into a “terrorist act, hostage-taking and illegal possession of firearms”, the ministry said.<\/p>\n
The independent Mtavari TV station has aired a mobile phone video shot by one of the hostages, which showed what he said were two explosive devices on the entrance door.<\/p>\n
“He (the hostage-taker) says these are bombs which will explode if the door opens,” the hostage said.<\/p>\n
Another video showed the alleged hostage-taker — a masked gunman in military fatigues — and the bank interior.<\/p>\n
A female hostage was heard saying: “His demand is $2 million (two million euros) within three hours. He has a hand grenade and there are bombs which will explode.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tbilisi, Sept 20 (AFP\/APP): Police in Georgia on Tuesday freed 14 hostages who were held by an armed man at a bank in the country’s second-largest city of Kutaisi, officials said. “All the 14 hostages were freed and the hostage-taker arrested,” the Black Sea nation’s […]<\/p>\n
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