TBILISI -- An unidentified assailant has taken 12 people hostage in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi, authorities say.
The Interior Ministry said on September 20 that special police units were taking "all necessary measures" to resolve the hostage crisis on the premises of the Bank of Georgia on Kutaisi's Shota Rustaveli Avenue.
The ministry said later that a probe was launched into hostage taking, illegal weapons possession, and terrorism.
The man used a hostage who said in a live broadcast via Facebook that the perpetrator demanded $2 million in cash, a Sprinter vehicle, a helicopter, a Russian flag, and a fishing rod.
Media reported earler that an unidentified man tried to rob the bank's branch in Kutaisi, but because police arrived at the site very quickly, he took at least 10 people hostage, including bank personnel and clients.
This is not the first time that a branch of the Bank of Georgia, the largest bank in the country, has been targeted.
In October 2020, a masked gunman wearing military fatigues took 43 people hostage in a Bank of Georgia branch in the western city of Zugdidi and managed to escape with an unspecified amount of cash in U.S. dollars. The perpetrator has not been apprehended.