TBILISI -- An almost nine-hour hostage-taking crisis at a Georgian bank has ended with the suspect being detained, the South Caucasus nation's Interior Ministry said late on September 20, adding that nobody was hurt.
According to the ministry, special police units managed to detain a suspect, born in 1985 and identified only by the initials G.N., who threatened to blow up the building of the Bank of Georgia in the city of Kutais, kill himself, and 14 hostages unless his demands were met.
The man entered the bank at around 11 a.m. on September 20 and demanded $2 million in cash, a Sprinter vehicle, a helicopter, a Russian flag, and a fishing rod.
Media reports identified the man as Grigol Narsia, but that was not officially confirmed.
The ministry said earlier that a probe was launched into hostage taking, illegal weapons possession, and terrorism.
This is not the first time that a branch of the Bank of Georgia, the largest bank in the country, has been targeted.
In October 2020, a masked gunman wearing military fatigues took 43 people hostage at a Bank of Georgia branch in the western city of Zugdidi and managed to escape with an unspecified amount of cash in U.S. dollars. The perpetrator has not been apprehended.