Family held hostage by policeman's attacker freed in Nizhnevartovsk
KHANTY-MANSIYSK. May 8 (Interfax) - A Nizhnevartovsk resident who opened gunfire at a police officer on Wednesday has taken a family hostage, senior assistant to the head of the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region department of the Russian Investigative Committee Yelena Sherman said.
"The man fired three rounds at the officer, walked into an apartment block on Internatsionalnaya Street and rang the doorbell of an apartment. The door opened and he took hostages - a woman, her partner, her daughter and a baby - at gunpoint," Sherman told Interfax on Thursday.
The police were called. It took them seven hours to release the hostages. The assailant was detained at about 1 a.m., she said.
The man did not make any demands and negotiations started through the door shortly before his detention. The suspect gave himself in. None of the hostages were hurt, Sherman stressed.
The suspect, a native of Dagestan born in 1976, is facing criminal charges.
"The wounded police officer has undergone a successful surgery," she said.
The suspect fired a shot at the chest of a Nizhnevartovsk interdepartmental security guard, who had tried to check his ID, at 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday and fled the incident scene.