UPDATE: Interior Ministry says all hostages released, operation to detain attacker continues
An armed individual initially kept 23 people in hostage including employees of the Bank of Georgia branch in Zugdidi, but he let some of the hostages leave the building. Photo: Mtavari.tv
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Updated: 05:10, October 22
The Georgian Interior Ministry released a statement early in the morning, saying that following the special police operation in Samegrelo region, 'all hostages have been released and their lives and health are no longer in danger.'
As a result of a special #police operation carried out by the MIA in #Zugdidi, all hostages have been released & their lives and health are no longer in danger.
— MIA of Georgia (@MIAofGeorgia) October 22, 2020
Law enforcers continue operative-investigative & search activities to arrest the assailant.https://t.co/qGnL7JjIVg
The ministry also underscored that the armed attacker on the bank of Georgia bank, which is located at Zviad Gamsakhurdia Avenue in Zugdidi, initially took 43 people hostage.
Thanks to the police efforts, as a result of difficult and long-lasting negotiations, most of the hostages were gradually released during the day, who were replaced by Avtandil Galdava, Director of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Police Department. Later, Avtandil Galdava along with three other hostages left the bank building with the attacker", the interior ministry statement reads.
It further adds that as all hostages have been released now, law enforcers 'continue intensive operative-investigative and search activities in order to arrest the assailant'.
Additional information regarding the incident that took place in #Zugdidi:
— MIA of Georgia (@MIAofGeorgia) October 21, 2020
At this moment, 43 people taken as hostages, have been released & transferred to a safe area.
Operative & investigative activities are actively in progress.
Full Statement: https://t.co/QG8ADGEukn
Updated at 22:51, October 21
An armed attacker in the Bank of Georgia branch in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi has released two more hostages, leaving 16 more in the building, IPN reports from the ground.
The attacker, who has been keeping the hostages for over seven hours now, has demanded half a million USD and security guarantees through one of the hostages, Irakli Kvaratskhelia.
Kvaratskhelia sent a message to opposition-leaning Mtavari Arkhi TV Director General Nika Gvaramia, saying he had been taken hostage and that the attacker wanted to talk to him.
Mtavari Arkhi TV livestreamed Kvaratskhelia, who showed the armed man and the hostages:
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said in its initial statement that they received information at around 14:21 today that the armed individual ‘broke into the building’ of the Bank of Georgia.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs would like to call on the media sources to observe the security norms, avoid live coverage of the police activities and operation led by the officers from the Special Forces. The mentioned action will pose a threat to the lives and health of citizens and police officers”, the ministry then announced.
It also stated that policemen immediately 'launched an operation to neutralise the assailant’.
Today MIA received report at approximately 14:21 that an armed individual broke into the building of one of the banks in #Zugdidi
— MIA of Georgia (@MIAofGeorgia) October 21, 2020
At this moment, law enforcers are mobilized on the spot, investigative & operative measures are underway.
Full statement: https://t.co/n4bDPHn4gc
However, as various media continued to livestream developments around the Bank of Georgia branch in Zugdidi, the ministry demanded from all media outlets and mobile operators 'to immediately cut off/restrict the live signal from the incident site in order to protect the safety of the hostages and law enforcers, as well as to effectively conduct the police operation'.
Otherwise, the state reserves the right to exercise all respective tools at its disposal provided by the acting legislation to ensure the safety of life and health of our citizens", the First Deputy Interior Minister Kakhaber Sabanadze said at a news briefing.
Noting that the ministry is sparing no efforts to release hostages and finalise the police operation peacefully, it said live broadcast of the assailant poses a threat to the effective operation of police units.
Statement of the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs- Kakhaber Sabanadze regarding the incident taking place in #Zugdidi: https://t.co/hBsAWm6qQt
— MIA of Georgia (@MIAofGeorgia) October 21, 2020
Mtavari Arkhi TV reported that initially the armed attacker had set a deadline to police till 6 p.m. to satisfy his demands, otherwise, he would kill the hostages.
When the deadline approached, Kvaratskhelia later addressed the authorities via livestream again, urging them to satisfy the attacker's demands to ensure that none of the hostages would suffer.
As of now, police are mobilised around the site, politicians and media are also present on the ground, following the developments.
Later at night, Irakli Kvaratskhelia, one of the hostages, wrote on his Facebook page that all but three hostages have been released as the attacker received money and left the building.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has addressed journalists covering the Bank of Georgia branch hostage crisis in Zugdidi where an armed attacker took 19 people hostage earlier today. “I call on media outlets to take the appeal of the law enforcers into consideration and provide the public with information without hindering the operation of police units”, Zurabishvili said.
The de facto authorities of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia region say the man who held up a Bank of Georgia branch in Zugdidi yesterday will not be allowed into the region. Sputnik cites the de facto authorities as saying that the attacker has not been mentioned near the occupied region so far. The attacker, who demanded half a million USD, released a Georgian regional police officer and the last three hostages in the forest of Kirtskhi village in Chkhotortsu municipality, near the Russian-occupied Abkhazia region.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia says that the primary goal was to end yesterday’s attack on the Bank of Georgia Zugdidi branch without victims and that this goal was reached. "Now our main goal is to detain the offender and our law enforcement agencies must use and are using all legal measures to do this,” Gakharia said, adding that the offender’s detention is important to prevent such crimes in the future.
Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri has confirmed that the attacker on the Bank of Georgia Zugdidi branch yesterday took money from the bank and it was not state money as some media outlets said. Gomelauri stated that everything is being done to detain the offender. "Our primary goal was to save the hostages. Now [we are doing all we can] to detain the offender and hold him accountable,” Gomelauri said.
Brother of Badri Esebua, the Zugdidi bank robber who took hostages and escaped with half a million USD, was detained yesterday for the illegal purchase and possession of firearms and ammunition.
An armed man has attacked a Bank of Georgia branch and has taken hostages near Avlabari Metro Station in Tbilisi.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that police officers have detained the bank attacker, Nikoloz Tsurtsumia (born in 1993) and have released seven hostages.
The Georgian Interior Ministry on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of a man who was wanted since October 2020 for a robbery of a Bank of Georgia branch in the country’s western Samegrelo region, during which he took hostages and reportedly escaped with half a million dollars.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Wednesday responded to the arrest of a bank robber who had been wanted for two years by saying the detention was a “warning signal to all criminal romantics succumbed to temptation”.