A man took 17 bus passengers hostage at the main train station Rio de Janeiroafter at least two people were injured with a gun, police reported on Tuesday.
The area was cordoned off and agents from the elite special battalion unit were conducting “negotiations on site,” Rio military police said in a statement.
“A man shot two people and took them away hostages to other passengers on a bus at the Rio bus station in the Santo Cristo neighborhood. “The injured were taken to the Souza Aguiar municipal hospital in the center,” police said.
Television footage showed a blue bus stopping in the middle of an empty parking lot.
A total of 17 people are being held, including children and the elderly, military police Colonel Marco Andrade said outside the train station.
The aim of the negotiations is the “self-sacrifice” of the individual, he added.
It was initially unclear how the incident occurred, but according to witness statements, the man shot at the vehicle from outside and then got into the bus.
“I was on the catwalk when the person pulled out the gun and started shooting,” a station user, Carlos Sarabia, told the Globo channel.
“I have two friends who are on the bus,” he added. “We are all desperate because we don’t know what will happen.”
Television also showed a heavy police presence and dozens of people outside the train station in the center of the city.
The terminal was closed after all passengers and staff were evacuated, AFP confirmed.
Buses to other regions of Brazil leave from the train station and 38,000 people pass through it every day.
Bus hijacking has already occurred in Rio.
In 2019, a person on the bridge connecting Rio de Janeiro to the neighboring city of Niterói held bus passengers hostage for nearly four hours before finally being shot down by police snipers.
In August 2011 there was another kidnapping in the middle of the city, in which three people were injured.
The most serious case occurred in June 2000, when a hostage was murdered and the attacker died after being captured by authorities. This event inspired a film.
SPRING: AFP