Police storm apartment after former soldier reportedly takes woman hostage in Russian Far East

A man in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, the capital of Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka region, took a woman hostage in an apartment and threatened to harm on Friday morning, according to local emergency services.

The regional authorities’ public information center reported the situation at about 9:00 a.m. local time, saying that the man was refusing to negotiate and that the police were preparing to storm the apartment.

Two hours after the initial report, the agency posted an update: “The offender has been detained, there were no casualties.” The authorities have not shared additional details.

The Telegram news outlet Baza reported that the hostage-taker was a 32-year-old man named Nikita Sh. who returned from the war in Ukraine in March after getting injured. According to the channel, the man was previously convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on another person.

Baza also published a video that appears to show police officers entering the third-story apartment through its balcony.