Armed men in Armenia seize police station, demand politicians' release

Policemen block a street after group of armed men seized a police station along with an unknown number of hostages, according the country's security service, in Yerevan, Armenia, July 17, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

YEREVAN/MOSCOW - Armed men seized a police station and hostages in Armenia's capital Yerevan on Sunday, killing one police officer in the process before demanding Armenians take to the streets to secure the release of jailed opposition politicians.

Their main demand was to free Jirair Sefilian, an opposition leader whom the authorities have accused of plotting civil unrest. Sefilian was jailed in June over allegations of illegally possessing weapons.

Armenia's security service said one policeman had been killed and two wounded in the violence, but that negotiations were now underway to try to persuade the hostage takers to lay down their weapons.

"Special units remain on the scene in a state of combat readiness, but the order to attack or take any other action has not been given to them," the National Security Service said in a statement.

Two hostages had been freed, it said, and "several" hostages remained. The city's deputy police chief, Valery Osipyan, was reported to be among them. Photographs from the scene show the area crowded with white armoured police vehicles.

Though far smaller in scale, suggestions by one opposition politician that an armed uprising was underway stoked speculation that the hostage takers had drawn inspiration from an unsuccessful coup attempt in neighbouring Turkey.

President Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting with security officials to decide how best to handle the situation, his office said, saying he had been told that the siege was completely under control.

The National Security Service accused the hostage takers' supporters of spreading false rumours on the internet about an uprising and the seizure of other buildings. Such assertions were "disinformation," it said.