End of Hostage Situation in Brazil
The incident of the hostage-taking in a bus at the main station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ended Tuesday with the surrender of the perpetrator, who had opened fire and injured two people with gunshots, and with the release of the hostages, according to the police.
Colonel Marco Andrade, spokesperson for the military police, was quoted by AFP as saying, “The hostage-taker surrendered himself, and he was arrested, and all 17 hostages are safe.”
The military police in Rio de Janeiro had announced in a statement that the area was cordoned off, and elite members of the Special Operations Brigade “are conducting negotiations at the scene.”
The police stated, “A gunman fired at two people and held hostages on a bus at the Novo Rio bus station,” adding that the injured were taken to the hospital.
Footage broadcast by “Globo News” showed a state of chaos prevailing at the station located in downtown Rio, from where buses depart to various parts of Brazil.
A witness at the station recounted, “A man pulled out a gun and started shooting, then got on the bus. I have two friends on this bus, everyone is desperate, and we don’t know what will happen.”
In the year 2000, a hostage-taking operation in a bus in a residential area of Rio de Janeiro resulted in the deaths of two people.
This incident shocked Brazil, as media outlets covered its events live for hours, which inspired the movie “Last Stop 174,” released in 2008.
In 2019, police opened fire on an armed hostage-taker with what turned out to be a fake rifle after he had held passengers on a bus hostage for several hours on a major bridge connecting the city to the town of Niteroi.
