Gunman parades man strapped with explosives around balcony
Raw video: Brazilian news agency covers hostage situation at Brasilia hotel
UPDATE: The Globo network is reporting that Jac Souza dos Santos, the gunman who had been threatening to explode the St. Peter Hotel in Brasilia, has turned himself in to police forces.
Social media reports from Brasilia say that Souza dos Santos is in police custody and the unnamed hostage has been freed. Reports state that there has been no injuries or explosions.
***
The man holding a hostage and threatening to explode the St. Peter Hotel in Brasilia has been identified as 30-year-old Jac Souza dos Santos a former councilman and member of Brazil’s Partido Progressista (Progessive Party, in Portguese) in the town of Combinado in the state of in Tocantins.
According to Lucy Jordan, a freelance journalist working in Brasilia, Estado de São Paulo has confirmed that Souza dos Santos is the hostage taker, but police have so far remained quiet about the identity of the kidnapper.
The chairman of the Progressive Party (PP) of Combinado, Lindon Jonson Miguel da Silva, confirmed from pictures that the kidnapper is Souza dos Santo, the former Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock of the municipality.
"It was a big surprise for everyone. He is a very good guy...We are praying for the family," Jonson said, according to O Globo. "No question it is psychological."
Jordan has so far also reported two of the kidnapper’s demands: one being the implementation of Brazil’s “clean record” law, a piece of the legislation already in place that aims to bar corrupt candidates from office, and his second demand is that Brazil extradite Cesare Battisti, a former member of the leftist guerrilla group the Armed Proletarians for Communism, back to Italy.
***
A hotel was evacuated in the capital of Brasilia after a man took an employee hostage, took him onto the balcony wearing what appeared to be a vest with an explosive device attached to it and started making demands.
Firefighters and police cordoned off the area and about 300 guests and other employees left the hotel — some reportedly told to leave by the same man carrying out the attack.
Images airing on live television on Monday showed the assailant with what appeared to be a gun parading the hostage out onto the balcony of a room on the 13th floor of the hotel.
According to the BBC, guests told local news outlets that the man knocked on the doors of the 13th floor and told people to leave because he was going to perform what he described as a "terrorist act."
A spokesman at the St. Peter Hotel reached by Fox News said that the hostage situation has been resolved, but the BBC is saying that, according to local police, negotiations were under way and that the man was making "political statements."
The hostage was handcuffed and wearing what appeared to be an explosive vest. Police didn't confirm whether there were actual explosives in the garment.
Police haven't identified the man or said if he had any demands.
Based on reporting by the Associated Press.
Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino
Like us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino
Fox News' "Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world.