Hostage taker in Astrakhan let one person go and asked for pizza and cola

The man who took several people hostage at the Volga-Caspian Fishery College in Astrakhan has released one of the hostages. Interfax reports this with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the region.

"He released one hostage, leaving three. According to changing data, the number of hostages varied from four to five people," the source said. 63-year-old teacher Lyudmila Shaposhnikova was released. Watchman Zhanna Korosheva, student Alexandra Polovenkova and student Tatyana Likhobadina are being held hostage, LifeNews reports.

“At 14:00, the duty department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Astrakhan region received a message that in the premises of the Fishery College of Astrakhan at the address Astrakhan, Naberezhnaya 1 May St., 47, an unidentified man had captured and was holding four hostages in the third floor auditorium: two students, one teacher and a security worker,” the local Ministry of Internal Affairs reported . According to the department, “the attacker has a box with an explosive device.”

The local office of the Investigative Committee, in turn, reported that a man broke into the college with a pistol. “An unknown man, under threat of an object similar to a pistol, locked himself in one of the classrooms along with two college employees - a teacher and a janitor, as well as two students,”says the website of the Astrakhan Investigative Committee.

Negotiations were held with the man - he demanded that food and drinks be brought to him. “They will bring him pizza and Pepsi-Cola. Police officers and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Astrakhan Region, Grigory Kulik, took part in the negotiations,” the police said. The identity of the perpetrator has not yet been established. The Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, Pavel Astakhov, reports on Twitter that "the invader is a young man, 25-26 years old, of European (Russian) appearance." Astakhov refers to a conversation with the governor of the Astrakhan region, Alexander Zhilkin.

Now at the scene there are police special forces, armored personnel carriers and a helicopter.