Rio de Janeiro: All the hostages were freed unharmed after a sniper shot the man dead who took dozens of hostages on a bus in Brazil on Tuesday.
The incident took place on the bridge which connects Rio with Niteroi and offers a clear view of Rio de Janeiro's Sugarloaf Mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
Although the planned setting of hijacking was a bid for maximum publicity on the spot with virtually no chance of escape.
The bus was coming from Sao Gonçalo, a community struggling with poverty and violence.
According to the police, the man had a gun and a knife and also threatened to set the vehicle on fire.
The police were unable to discover any real motive behind the incident and didn't make any demands.
However, Lt. Col. Maurilio Nunes of the elite police squad said that handled the hostage-taking said the gun was fake.
Rio bus hijack: Hostages freed, sniper shot gunman dead To understand the man's troubled state of mind police had summoned some professional psychologists.
On Tuesday he boarded the bus at around 5:30 a.m (local time) and later hijacked the bus.
According to the information, the hostage's wrist was tied with a plastic strap but they were allowed to make brief phone calls to their family members. The gunman also guided the police by providing some description on a piece of paper placed at the window.
Later, he started releasing hostages, first, he released two hostages, then another two and then two more separately. He then stepped out of the bus and was shot by the sniper.
The episode reminded many Brazilians of shocking images from a bus seizure in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 during which a hostage and the gunman were killed.
Another hijacking incident took place in 2017, a man with a toy gun took 30 people hostage on a bus on the same bridge linking Rio and Niteroi, and released them unharmed after an hour.
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