PM on bank attack: hostages saved, ‘now we must detain offender’
Georgian PM Giorgi Gakharia has responded to yesterday’s attack on the Bank of Georgia branch in Zugdidi. Photo: Government of Georgia press office.
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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.
Police received a call about an armed attacker in the Bank of Georgia Zugdidi branch at 14:21 yesterday.
Initially the attacker took 43 hostages, including consumers and the bank personnel.
The Interior Ministry began ‘long and complicated negotiations’ with the attacker which ended in the release of most of the hostages.
At 23:00 the attacker left the building with the head of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti police chief Avtandil Galdava and three hostages.
One of the hostages said that the police handed money (allegedly 500,000 USD) to the attacker.
Earlier today the ministry reported that all the hostages were released safely, while the attacker had escaped.
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 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 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.' Irakli Kvaratskhelia, one of the hostages of the armed attacker in the Bank of Georgia branch in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi, had reported earlier that the attacker received money and left the building with three hostages.
An armored cash collection vehicle has been attacked and robbed in Georgia’s Black sea town of Kobuleti today. 1TV.ge reports that the robber stole 50,000 GEL in cash.
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.
Georgian Designer Zviad Tsikolia’s watch shop was robbed on Shardeni street in Tbilisi earlier today.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has announced today that the armed attacker on the Bank of Georgia branch in the western town of Zugdidi has been identified. However, the ministry calls on all media outlets and the public not to reveal the identity or a photograph of the offender, in case they somehow happen to receive information, in order not to interfere in the police investigation.
Police confirm that all nine hostages in central Tbilisi, employees of microcredit company MBC, have been freed after negotiations with the attacker. The attacker, who announced three demands, has been arrested.