Tbilisi-SANA
The Georgian Ministry of Interior announced that a gunman had taken hostages inside the headquarters of a financial company in the center of the capital, Tbilisi, today.
"The initial information indicates that an armed man stormed the company's headquarters and detained nine people," Russia Today quoted the ministry as saying in a brief statement, noting that the police cordoned off the scene.
In turn, media reports stated that the targeted company bears the name MBC and suggested that there were several attackers, possibly up to five, one of whom was armed with a grenade.
The Ministry of the Interior asked the media to stop the live broadcasts from the scene of the accident, while the motives behind the detention remain mysterious.
This is the second hostage-taking incident in Georgia in about a month. On the 21st of last month, an armed man held 43 hostages in a branch of the Bank of Georgia, one of the largest commercial banks in the country, in the city of Zugdidi.
After the authorities paid a ransom estimated at half a million dollars, the bomber released all the hostages and managed to escape.