Armenia Standoff: Four Medics 'Taken Hostage'

07/27/2016

Police say gunmen who have been barricaded in a police station for 10 days have taken an ambulance crew hostage.

Armed men locked in a prolonged standoff with police in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, have taken four medics hostage, according to officials.

The gunmen seized the police post on July 17, demanding freedom for a jailed opposition figure, and took those inside hostage. The last of those held were released on Saturday.

On Wednesday, police said an ambulance crew was held after entering the compound to treat two gunmen wounded in clashes that also left two attackers and a police officer hospitalised.

"The doctors who went into the captured territory to assist two members of the armed group who refused to go to hospital have been taken hostage," police spokesman Ashot Aharonyan wrote on Facebook.

"The police are taking steps to free the doctors through negotiations."

This article continues at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/armenia-standoff-medics-hostage-160727100031329.html.