BRUSSELS: Belgian police surrounded an apartment in the city of Ghent yesterday after reports that armed men were holding a hostage, but the incident may have been a false alarm, officials said. Prosecutors initially said that four armed men had taken a captive at the property in a working-class area of the northwestern city, adding that there were no indications of terrorism. “We are examining whether there was a hostage-taking,” said Annemie Serlippens, the spokeswoman for the Ghent prosecutor, adding that reports of hostages were taken “very seriously” initially. She said that the incident — in which more than a dozen armed police officers set up a perimeter around the building — appeared linked to drugs. The alarm was initially raised by a man who called police saying that he had seen “four men with Kalashnikovs” taking his friend hostage, Serlippens told reporters at the scene. “But so far we have no indications of the presence of any Kalashnikovs or of armed people here,” she said.
5 killed in shooting near Philadelphia
NEW YORK: At least five people were shot dead early yesterday by a suspected gunman outside the northeastern US city of Philadelphia. The shootings, which ABC television affiliate WPVI said were thought to have been committed by a male military veteran, were said to have taken place at three different locations in suburban Philadelphia. SWAT teams were called to a possible fourth scene in Pennsburg, it added. The Souderton Area School District posted a notice on its website that its schools were on lockdown due to the police activity. WPVI cited sources as saying all victims — including at least one woman — were shot at close range.
Britain to hold flight chaos inquiry
LONDON: Britain is to hold an independent inquiry into a computer failure at its air traffic control hub which caused chaos for travellers last week, aviation officials said. The glitch delayed departures, diverted arrivals and led to the cancellations of dozens of flights on Friday, with the chaos spilling into Saturday. Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced the inquiry, saying it would look at the root cause, the response and whether lessons had been learned following a similar incident last December.
Outage blacks out US State Department
WASHINGTON: An unusually severe power outage plunged the US State Department into darkness yesterday, officials said. The power cut struck at 9am local time (1400 GMT), knocking out lights, computers and phones. Emergency generators restored power to allow “essential operations” to some phones and computers, the official said. No special security procedures appeared to have been taken in response to the outage at the building, one of the most secure federal installations in the United States. The United States has the largest diplomatic and consular network in the world, with some 70,000 people working for the State Department.
Agencies
