Sao Paulo: Brazilian police killed a suspect who held 13 children at knifepoint for more than two hours Thursday at a Curitiba school located in the southern part of the country, authorities said. None of the children were injured.
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Parana state police spokeswoman Leticia Martins told journalists outside school CMEI Sao Braz that the man broke into one of the classrooms and kept children and staffers as hostages for two hours.
She did not disclose how the suspect was killed or the age of the children involved.
Police negotiations end in suspect's death
“(The suspect) also threatened to pour gasoline onto himself and others, our negotiating teams were in place, but saw no alternative but to neutralise him,” said Martins, who did not say whether the suspect had expressed a specific reason for his actions.
The incident took place in the middle-class region of Sao Braz in Curitiba, a city of 1.8 million residents 400 kilometres (248 miles) south of metropolis Sao Paulo.
Parents await news during hostage crisis
Local media showed footage of tearful parents outside the school waiting for information as the negotiations between the suspect and police were ongoing. Minutes after two explosions, policemen emerged carrying some of the children outside.
Psychological support for children and staff
Curitiba city hall said in a statement that the children and the staffers of the school will receive psychological support after the incident.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
