Hostage drama ends peacefully in Guatemala - 43 hostages unharmed

A hostage drama ended peacefully in Guatemala overnight after the 29-year-old hostage-taker released the 43 people he had held for more than four hours, Spanish media reported Tuesday.

The man, identified as Luis Fernando Escobar Martinez, had threatened to blow up the office building in central Guatemala City if police tried to free the hostages by force.

Ecobar entered the building on Monday evening, shooting a security guard in the leg.

He later also fired at firefighters who tried to persuade him to surrender, apparently without causing them injuries.

Police said Escobar had military explosives powerful enough to destroy half of the building.

The man finally surrendered to police, releasing the hostages unharmed, according to Spanish National Radio.

Unofficial sources said Escobar had initially wanted to kill his former wife and her new partner, who worked in a call centre in the office building.

A man shot and wounded a security guard and held 40 people hostage at a call center on Monday demanding to see his ex wife's boyfriend, but surrendered to police after a five-hour siege.

Police said the 29-year-old man threatened to blow up the call center on the fifth floor of a Guatemala City building with an explosive device he was carrying.

Police negotiators persuaded the man to free his hostages and give himself up.

Police said the hostage-taker, Luis Fernando Escobar, had a "sentimental" problem and had demanded to see his former wife's boyfriend who worked at the call center.

The hostages, mainly employees of the call center, streamed out of the modern building, some of them in tears, after the man released them.

"Everyone is well, thank God," a woman relative of one of the hostages told Guatemalan radio as the stand-off ended.