Americas News
Policemen in reporters' guise end Colombia hostage crisis (Roundup)
By DPA
May 21, 2008, 21:49 GMT

Bogota - Police officers disguised as journalists Wednesday overpowered a grenade-toting hostage taker in Colombia's pension affairs building and freed all 19 hostages.

The retired Colombian military officer Edgar Paz Morales seized the hostages for several hours, threatening to set off the grenade if his seven-year-pending application for retirement pay was not finally put through, Colombian officials said.

Morales allowed journalists into the building to hear his prepared statement read by one of the hostages in front of the television cameras. From the midst of the journalists, the two police officers rushed forward and overpowered the man, preventing the hand grenade from going off.

The hostage-taker claimed he had served more than 40 years in the military, and had been waiting for seven years for his pension.

His demands to speak with the ombudsman for human rights in Colombia, Volmar Perez, as well as high ranking military commanders went unanswered.

A police bomb squad had surrounded the building.