Astrakhan police detain suspected accomplice of hostage-taker

Police in Astrakhan have detained a suspected accomplice of the man who took four hostages in a city college earlier in the day. "The suspect is a female student from the same college where the incident occurred," the Russian Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass. The bomb and the pistol used by the hostage taker were dummies. None of the hostages was hurt in the operation conducted by special task force police. Earlier reports said a man, at 14:00, Moscow time, threatened Volgo-Kaspiisky college personnel with a pistol, and locked himself in a classroom with two college staff and two students. He released a college teacher after the authorities had delivered a pizza and coca-cola to him, as he had demanded. The college students and tenants in nearby houses were evacuated for the period of the operation.