Greek hostage taker arrested

A BANK robber armed with hand grenades and a gun surrendered to police in Greece after holding several people in the bank hostage yesterday following an attempted bank robbery.

The man initially took an estimated 15 people hostage, including bank employees and customers, and gradually released most of them, keeping three people for several hours as police hostage negotiators tried to persuade him to give himself up. At one point the gunman fired about four times, but they were apparently warning shots and police said there were no injuries.

Police had earlier arrested two suspects outside the bank who were believed to have been acting as lookouts during the attempted robbery.