MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st August, 2019) Police in Rio de Janeiro neutralized the armed man who took dozens of people hostage on a bus on Tuesday, local media reported, adding that the hostages were released.
Earlier in the day, reports emerged that 37 people were taken hostage on the bus that was traveling across a bridge linking the suburb of Sao Goncalo to downtown Rio de Janeiro. At least seven people, were released during negotiations with the hijacker. The hostages reportedly did not sustain any injuries.
The suspect, who presented himself as a police officer, was shot dead by a sniper of Brazil's elite police force, the Globo news portal reported, citing a statement by law enforcers. A spokesperson for the local police told other media that the hijacker was carrying a toy gun.
Former commander of Sao Paulo's Special Actions and Tactics Group and former negotiator, Col. Diogenes Lucca, told Sputnik that the operation was carried out excellently.
"There was a crisis containment, scene isolation, establishment of communication through negotiations, but they [the security forces] realized that the negotiations did not give any results, and in that case they chose the option with a sniper. In my opinion, from the point of view of crisis management, [it was] an absolutely magnificent operation," the colonel said.
One of the incident's eyewitnesses, who miraculously escaped the fate of the hostages, chose to wait for the next bus as the previous one was overcrowded.
"I heard that he [the hijacker] got on the bus at the final stop in Alcantara, and took hostages only on the bridge, or so they write in the media. If this is true, then when I refused to get onto this bus, he [the hijacker] was already there," the eyewitness told Sputnik.
Despite the fact that all the hostages were rescued, the eyewitness believes that the outcome of the operation carried out by the authorities was unsuccessful, since the suspect's death can be used to "continue the policy of exterminating the poor, the blacks and the residents of the favelas," he later wrote on social media.
The actions of the police of Rio de Janeiro are considered one of the most brutal in the world and cause sharp controversy in society.
