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Agence France-Presse

A hijacker armed with what turned out to be a toy gun was shot dead by police in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday after he held a busload of passengers hostage for several hours on a major bridge in peak-hour traffic.
Dozens of people were trapped on the public bus on a heavily transited bridge connecting Rio with the neighbouring city of Niteroi after it was commandeered by the man, who also carried gasoline.
Around 31 people were stuck on the vehicle throughout the terrifying, four-hour ordeal, but no one was hurt, police said.
At least six others - four women and two men - were freed.
A military police spokesman said the man turned out to be carrying a toy gun.
“It was necessary for the sniper to neutralise (the hijacker) and save people on the bus.
“He (hijacker) died at the scene.”
Heavily armed police including military and snipers had surrounded the bus as they negotiated with the hijacker, whose identity has not been released.
A live broadcast of the scene showed several ambulances parked near the bus, receiving hostages as they were released one by one.

The man reportedly boarded the Rio-bound bus at 5:30am and began threatening passengers.
“He said the bus was being hijacked and didn’t ask for our belongings,” Hans Moreno, one of the passengers, told Globo TV.
“He was very calm, very quiet.”
Police said hostages told them the man had spilled petrol in the bus and threatened to set it on fire.
Walter Freire, another passenger, said he thought he was “going to die”.
“Thank God the police performed well,” Freire told Globo TV.
‘Secret snipers’ deployed in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro to take down armed suspects
Several lanes of traffic on the busy Rio-Niteroi bridge spanning Guanabara Bay were paralysed during the hostage situation.
Commuters stopped on the bridge could be seen standing outside their cars and taking photos or filming videos with their smartphones.
The bus had been on its way to Rio, a sprawling city of more than six million people where deadly violence is common.
“Ideally everyone would have got out of this alive, but we had to take a decision to save the hostages,” Rio state Governor Wilson Witzel told reporters at the scene.

“We are looking after the families of the hostages and of the person who died.”
A member of the hijacker’s family had “apologised to the entire society”, Witzel added.
The hijacker - a young man wearing a white T-shirt and dark-coloured trousers - exited the bus at one point, showing his face, G1 reported.
Bulletproof on a budget: forget the limo, Brazil’s bestselling armoured car is a Corolla
It is not clear if he made any demands or what his motivation was for taking the hostages.
“We ask the population to stay calm. Our police are at the scene,” military police tweeted during the standoff.
This is not the first time a public transit bus has been hijacked in Rio.
In 2000, a gunman stormed a passenger bus in a fashionable neighbourhood of the city. The hours-long hijacking of bus 174 was later turned into an award-winning documentary.
The hijacker and one hostage were killed in that incident.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Brazil

Sniper kills Brazil bus hijacker who held dozens hostage with toy gun

A police sniper at the scene. Photo: EPA

A police officer holds his weapon as he flies on a helicopter over the bridge connecting the city of Niteroi to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019 during a hostage standoff. An armed man holding dozens of people hostage on a public bus and threatening to set the vehicle on fire was seized by police after a four-hour long standoff, Brazilian police said. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

epa07782071 A woman is taken on a stretcher after she passed out moments after she was released from a bus by a hijacker in the Rio-Niteroi bridge in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20 August 2019. A masked armed man hijacked a bus and keeps passengers and driver as hostages while he threatens to burn the vehicle with petrol. EPA-EFE/ANTONIO LACERDA

‘Secret snipers’ deployed in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro to take down armed suspects

Armed suspected drug gang members take positions during an operation at Grota slum in Rio de Janeiro November 26, 2010. A wave of violence began on Sunday with attacks on police stations and burning of vehicles, actions Rio's top security official said were ordered by imprisoned gang members. Authorities say the attacks are a protest by traffickers after being forced from their turf by police occupations of more than a dozen slums in the past two years. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes (BRAZIL - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Members of the Brazilian Military Police special unit Choque, patrol during an operation in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: AFP

Bulletproof on a budget: forget the limo, Brazil’s bestselling armoured car is a Corolla

The market for low-cost and second-hand bulletproof cars is booming

(FILES) This file photo taken on December 15, 2017, shows a general view of a company of armoured cars in Maua, Sao Paulo, Brazil. - Whether to get genuinely needed protection or just to show off, the bulletproofed personal vehicle has usually been associated with the rich, but in Brazil, armored cars are far more common than in most countries. (Photo by Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 15, 2017, a technician points at the shot of a .357 Magnum at the window of an armoured car, at a company in Maua, Sao Paulo, Brazil. - Whether to get genuinely needed protection or just to show off, the bulletproofed personal vehicle has usually been associated with the rich, but in Brazil, armored cars are far more common than in most countries. (Photo by Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP)

In this file photo taken on December 15, 2017, an employee works on the installation of bulletproof para-aramid synthetic fibre inside an armoured car in Maua, Sao Paulo. Photo: Agence France-Presse

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Police in Rio de Janeiro said man had spilled petrol in the bus and threatened to set it on fire
None of the hostages was harmed during the four-hour hijacking



Police in Rio de Janeiro said hostages told them the man had spilled petrol in the bus and threatened to set it on fire.


Sniper kills Brazil bus hijacker who held dozens hostage with toy gun

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Police in Rio de Janeiro said man had spilled petrol in the bus and threatened to set it on fire None of the hostages was harmed during the four-hour hijacking

Police in Rio de Janeiro said man had spilled petrol in the bus and threatened to set it on fire

None of the hostages was harmed during the four-hour hijacking