West Bengal: Police avert hostage crisis in school

In a shocking incident, a gun-wielding man barged into a packed classroom of a high school in West Bengal's Malda district on Wednesday.

The man was overpowered by police and arrested, officials said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lauded the police for averting a potential school hostage crisis in the state.

Panic gripped the students of Muchia Anchal Chandra Mohan High School at Old Malda in the district, as the unidentified man brandished the gun and started yelling, a senior police officer said.

"The man managed to enter the school and barge into the room where Class-8 students were seated. He was holding a gun and shouting at the students, allegedly threatening to kill them and the class teacher," the officer told PTI.

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The person was immediately overpowered by police personnel and arrested, the officer said, adding, the pistol, two bottles containing some liquid and a knife were seized from his possession.

The man claimed he acted in this way, as his son and wife have been missing since a year, and he wanted to exert pressure on the administration to take note of it.

Anxious guardians rushed to the school and made a beeline outside the educational institution, even as classes were suspended following the incident, police said.

Lauding the police for disarming and arresting a man, Banerjee alleged that the entire matter may have been a plot. "Case of the man brandishing a gun at Malda school may not be an act of lunacy," the chief minister said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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