COSTA RICA: Hostage crisis at Russian Embassy in San Jose ends peacefully after standoff

Record ID: 519242

  • Title: COSTA RICA: Hostage crisis at Russian Embassy in San Jose ends peacefully after standoff
  • Date: 12th May 2007
  • Summary: (W5) SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA (MAY 11, 2007) (REUTERS) POLICE AND RESCUE WORKERS OUTSIDE THE EMBASSY
  • Embargoed: 27th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Costa Rica
  • Country: Costa Rica
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVADDEE9N6A2IMN0FE22JTTUAPJG
  • Story Text: A hostage crisis has ended at the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica, with police taking a suspect into custody.
    A hostage crisis at the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica ended on Friday (May 11) when police took a suspected hostage taker into custody.
    The drama began when an armed man took one person hostage at the Russian Embassy.
    Police cordoned off the building, a three-floor apartment in the centre of the capital and a tense stand-off lasted for several hours.
    Costa Rican officials said the hostage taker was a 21-year-old man from Kazakhstan.
    The Russian ambassador was in the building during the crisis but in a safe area away from the incident.
    Minister for Public Security, Alan Fonseca, said the motive for the incident was unclear.
    "I am informing you that I was asked if there were people who had left the embassy and yes, five people have left the embassy and also we don't know what the motive is, we don't know what moved him to do this," said Fonseca.
    A man said to be a friend of the suspect told reporters his friend had been applying for immigration papers.
    "This is the immigration paper that he needed to go through Russia," said Igor Ivanovich.
    In Moscow, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass said the incident stemmed from an argument between two visitors during which one of the visitors drew a gun.
    During the incident, the Russian Ambassador to Costa Rica spoke to a local TV channel while still in the Embassy.
    "Well, practically all of the people have already left the embassy through another door. So I am here, and so is our consul just to control the situation and see in what way we can cooperate with authorities," said Ambassador Valery Dmitrovich Nikolayenko.
    The hostage crisis ended peacefully with police taking out the suspect draped under a yellow rain jacket.
    Costa Rica has long been considered the most stable country in Central America and is a popular tourist destination.
    But, in another dramatic hostage crisis in July 2004, a Costa Rican policeman shot and killed three people inside the Chilean Embassy and then turned the gun on himself after learning he was to lose his job protecting the embassy. Seven other hostages escaped death by locking themselves in a room.
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