MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti) – Two teenagers taken hostage by a man in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk were released after about three hours of negotiations and a police operation on Thursday, in which police detained the captor, the Russian Interior Ministry’s press service said.
A 43-year-old man with previous convictions who was on a federal wanted list took hostage two teenage boys – aged 11 and 17 – and locked himself in an apartment in Chelyabinsk at approximately 16:35 Moscow time (12:35 GMT), the statement said. Police arrived at the scene soon after receiving an emergency call.
In the course of negotiations that followed, the man released the younger boy, but further talks produced no result, police said.
“At 21:27 local time (15:27 GMT) the special force of the Chelyabinsk police organized and successfully conducted a special operation to release the second hostage,” the Russian Interior Ministry said.
Investigators are now trying to establish the suspected kidnapper’s motives.
The Russian Investigative Committee said the man faces up to five years in prison on charges of the illegal deprivation of liberty and illegal intrusion into a home. The committee also said one of the hostages was seven, not 11 years old.
