A married couple and their two children have been freed in the Buenos Aires town of Tortuguitas, after suffering a harrowing six-hour captivity when escaped convicts forced their way into the family residence.
A resulting stand-off with police and negotiators finally came to a close when the hostage-takers, one of whom was identified as Marcelo Ameijeiras, handed themselves in around 8 p.m, and were immediately taken into police custody.
According to police sources the perpetrators escaped from prison just days previously, and broke into the house between Segui and Cura Brochera streets while running away from pursuing officers. Ameijeiras, who in 1997 was convicted of murder, had broken out of the Moreno penitentiary on September 9.
First contact had been made with the hostage-takers just before 5 p.m, when two of the criminals left the house to speak with negotiators. «We do not want to kill anybody,» one said, adding that the group was willing to hand itself in while warning that inside the house they were armed with «heavy weapons and grenades.»
Source: Buenos Aires Herald