Three suspects armed with guns and a grenade hijacked a bus full of people just east of Medellin Monday.
At approximately 8:00PM a group of three armed assailants boarded a bus near Guarne on the highway between Medellin and Colombia’s capital, Bogota.
Exclusiva: a esta hora asaltantes mantienen de rehenes a cerca de 15 pasajeros en buses en Guarne. twitter.com/MiOriente/stat…
— Oriente Antioqueño (@MiOriente) April 16, 2013
A witness told Colombia Reports that the bus driver realized that the men were armed and “sensing the situation, the driver stopped at a police checkpoint, and there the armed men felt threatened and decided to take the passengers hostage.”
The witness explained that the police told the people “that they wouldn’t treat them [the assailants] as common criminals because the weapons they had were grenades. The police ordered the people in the area to evacuate for safety.”
At approximately 10:20PM local news website MiOriente tweeted that the suspects had surrendered a grenade to police. About 20 minutes later they tweeted that the suspects had released the 15 passengers, and minutes after that, the suspects surrendered to police without incident.
