Top HRC official taken hostage

2007-04-19 14:25

Cape Town - Police have confirmed that a senior Human Rights Commission official was held hostage at the organisation's offices in the Absa Bank building in Cape Town on Thursday.

Captain Elliot Sinyangana said police were still investigating the cause of the incident.

"It was a Human Rights Commission official who was held hostage. It seems as if there was a dispute about pension," he said.

The hostage taker, a man with a long beard who could be in his 60s, was seen being removed by police from the Human Rights Commission offices on the seventh floor.

Sinyangana could not confirm whether the suspect was a former employee of the commission. Police were seen escorting the man into a van before driving away from the scene shortly before 13:00.

Police at the scene said the bearded man had earlier gone into the ABSA bank building with a firearm.

Eyewitness Tyalana Strydom, who works at a nearby business, said: "Some guy went up and took a few people hostage upstairs in the ABSA building."

Police cordoned off a section of Adderley Street around the bank building.

- SAPA