Off the wire
• Zambia denies shutting down phone services on election day  • Brexit will not affect UK-Zambia relations-British envoy  • Chinese vice premier meets FIFA president on China's football reform  • Tourists' total nights spent in Malta up in April  • Food supplement could lower cravings for high-calorie food: study  • Starting lineup of Belgium against Wales in Euro 2016 quarterfinals  • Gunmen abduct Sierra-Leonean envoy in northern Nigeria: sources  • China's HeSteel officially takes over Serbian steel mill: PM  • Urgent: U.S. strikes kill 64-116 civilians outside active war zone between 2009-2015: White House  • Nigerian court remands former ministers in prison over graft  
You are here: 　 Home

2nd LD: Attackers seize Bangladesh restaurant, several foreigners believed to be taken hostages

Xinhua, July 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Several people including foreign nationals are believed to be held hostage after police at a Spanish resturant in Bangladesh capital Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan exchanged fire with a group of criminals on Friday night.

Sources said five to six unidentified miscreants entered the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant where usually foreigners go for eating food and opened gunfire around 9:20 p.m. (local time).

As huge number of policemen cordoned off the restaurant , the miscreants opened fire at the law enforcers.

Police retaliated with bullets for about half an hour.

At one stage of firing, the attackers hurled bombs at policemen, leaving at least three people including two cops injured.

It is not immediately known whether the injured people included a foreigner.

"We're trying to end the hostage crisis peacefully," Rapid Action Battalion (RABB) Chief Benzir Ahmed told journalists in his brief comment.

He could not tell immediately how many people are caught up inside the restaurant. Endit