Rio de Janeiro:

A gunman who shot and wounded two people and took 17 passengers hostage at Rio de Janeiro’s main bus station on Tuesday surrendered and released the hostages after negotiations, Brazilian police said.

“The hijacker surrendered, he was arrested, all the hostages were released and they are safe,” said Gendarmerie Colonel Marco Andrade.

Earlier, police said agents from the elite Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) were “on scene after a man shot two people at a Nuevo Rio bus station and took hostages on a bus.” Negotiate”.

The injured were taken to hospital.

Andrade told reporters outside the station that a total of 17 people, including children and the elderly, were being held. One of them was shot three times and the other suffered minor injuries, he said.

Police have not released the identity or motive of the shooter.

-“Everyone is desperate”-

Images broadcast by Globo News showed chaos at the station in central Rio, where buses depart for all parts of Brazil, and police deployed around the area.

One witness told the broadcaster: “A man pulled out a gun and started shooting and then got into the bus. There were two of my friends on the bus and everyone was desperate and we didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Television footage showed a blue bus parked in the middle of an empty parking lot.

The terminal was closed after all passengers and staff were evacuated, AFP witnessed.

In 2000, a hostage-taking incident occurred on a bus in a residential area of ​​Rio, resulting in two deaths.

The incident riveted the nation, was broadcast live on television for hours and inspired the 2008 film The Last Stand.

In 2019, a hijacker who hijacked a bus on a bridge connecting Rio de Janeiro to the town of Niterói and held a bus full of passengers hostage for several hours was shot dead by police.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s most iconic city, has long been plagued by high crime rates linked to poverty and inequality.

Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling favelas dot the metropolitan area’s hillsides, often overlooking postcard-worthy beaches and lush mountains, and are a center of gang and drug-related violence.

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