Arrest after man took children hostage

A MAN armed with a box cutter barricaded himself inside a day-care centre in southern Italy yesterday with 11 children and a teacher, but police captured him hours later and all the hostages were released unhurt.

Police entered the classroom after the man stepped away from the door and they apprehended him without a struggle, said Renato Cortese, the top police official at the scene.

The man had released five of the children during the siege, and Mr Cortese said the remaining children and the teacher were eventually released unhurt.