Toy-gun carrying bus hijacker shot dead
Print Edition
A HIJACKER armed with what turned out to be a toy gun was shot dead by police in Rio de Janeiro yesterday after he held a busload of passengers hostage for several hours on a major bridge in peak-hour traffic.
Dozens of people were trapped on the public bus on a heavily transited bridge connecting Rio with the neighboring city of Niteroi after it was commandeered by the man, who also carried gasoline.
Around 30 people were stuck on the vehicle throughout the terrifying, four-hour ordeal, but no one was hurt, police said.
At least six others 鈥 four women and two men 鈥 were freed.
A military police spokesman said the man turned out to be carrying a toy gun.
鈥淚t was necessary for the sniper to neutralize (the hijacker) and save people on the bus. He (hijacker) died at the scene.鈥
Heavily armed police including military and snipers had surrounded the bus as they negotiated with the hijacker, whose identity has not been released. A live broadcast of the scene showed several ambulances parked near the bus, receiving hostages as they were released one by one.
The man reportedly boarded the Rio-bound bus at 5:30am and began threatening passengers. 鈥淗e said the bus was being hijacked and didn鈥檛 ask for our belongings,鈥 Hans Moreno, one of the passengers, told Globo TV. 鈥淗e was very calm, very quiet.鈥
Walter Freire, another passenger, said he thought he was 鈥済oing to die.鈥 鈥淭hank God the police performed well,鈥 Freire told Globo TV.
Several lanes of traffic on the busy Rio-Niteroi bridge spanning Guanabara Bay were paralyzed during the hostage situation. It is not clear if he made any demands or what his motivation was for taking the hostages.
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