Police in Armenia have arrested a man who allegedly tried to make his way into a government building in central Yerevan armed with a hand grenade.
National Security Service officers were questioning the as-yet-unidentified person late on October 27, sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
No one was hurt in the incident, RFE/RL’s correspondent reported from the scene.
Talking to RFE/RL, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian confirmed that the man held a grenade in his hand. He said he appeared mentally unstable.
His motives remained unclear, although Samson Galstian, a National Security Service spokesman, later told Russian state-run TASS news agency that the man, who was born in 1975, “tried to enter the Armenian government building and blow himself up.”
“National Security Service officers on duty disarmed him," he added.
The RFE/RL Armenian Service’s correspondent said the situation around the government building remained calm despite the incident.
An official said everything is normal inside the government office and “there is no need for panic.”
