An armed man on Tuesday took dozens of hostages on a bus in Brazil and threatened to set the vehicle on fire with gasoline before police shot him dead in a four-hour standoff broadcast live on television.
All of the hostages were freed unharmed in the confrontation, which unfolded on an 8-mile-long bridge linking Rio de Janeiro to the Niteroi municipality across Guanabara Bay.
The man, holding a gun and a knife, took 37 people hostage on the bus around 5:30 a.m., as commuter traffic was increasing. He released two hostages, then another two, and then two more, separately. Later, he stepped out of the bus, threw an object resembling a bag and was shot by a sniper.The gunman’s intentions were unclear and he did not make any particular demands, according to police.
“If the police could do their job and shoot people with rifles, so many victims would be spared,” Witzel said on TV Globo. Several shots were heard when police killed the man. Journalists and others in the area ducked to the ground.
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