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WASHINGTON: A standoff involving a man who took several people hostage at a Virginia post office has ended without bloodshed, the local mayor said on Wednesday.
The eight-hour ordeal involving a man believed to be carrying explosives ended with him being taken into police custody and three people being released from the post office in the southwestern Virginia town of Wytheville.
The town's Mayor Trent Crewe told CNN that fewer than five hostages had been in the building, but added he could not confirm how many people were being held by the time the situation ended.
Local media reports said three people exited the post office after the man, identified as Warren Gator of Tennessee, was arrested.
"We cannot confirm any explosives," Crewe said when the standoff ended, over eight hours after Gator entered the building and fired gun shots.
Multiple bomb squads had been on the scene and the Federal Bureau of Investigation headed negotiations, according to officials. The gunman's motive was unclear, Crewe said.
The Wytheville Enterprise newspaper, citing police on the scene, said the man entered the post office with five pounds of C-4, a plastic explosive, strapped to a wheelchair.
Reports of explosives prompted local police to cordon off the area around the post office located on Main Street in the small town.
Details of the hostage taker were still limited after the situation ended, although the Wytheville Enterprise reported he was not wheelchair bound.
State Police Sergeant M.T. Conroy "said that the man had pushed the wheelchair into the building", the newspaper reported, but it was unclear for what purpose.
- AFP/so
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