Gunmen took tourists hostage in Rio de Janeiro hotel and also in Manila

Rio de Janeiro / Manila

August 24th 2010

Gunmen took tourists as hostage in Rio de Janeiro Hotel while trying to escape from chasing policemen.

The incident took place when 60 drug gangs member were intercepted by the police while they were returning from a party early Sunday morning. Police started to chase these gangster. To save themselves 10 gangster went inside the InterContinental hotel and took 35 tourists as hostage.

What followed was 3 hour long gunfire battle between the police and the gangsters which ended with 1 female gang member dead and 4 police officers injured. All the hostages were released unharmed.

It was the second tourists hostage situation earlier, an ex-policemen in Manila, Philippines took 25 tourists hostage and demanded to be reinstated in the police force. Negotiations and later police attack killed the hijacker but not before he killed 10 tourists. All tourists were from Hong Kong.

This Hotel hijacking incident has raised questions over the security in Rio de Janeiro considering that since is going to host next Soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Crime in the city in increasing by the day which creates security issues for the foreign tourists.