Czech police nab suspect in bank hostage-taking

Police on Friday captured an armed man who held eight people hostage at a bank in the central Czech town of Pribram, police said, adding that nobody was injured.

"A special police unit entered the bank and detained the man," Pribram police spokeswoman Monika Schindlova told public broadcaster Czech Television.

"All hostages are OK," she said, adding the hostage-taker was born in 1990 but refusing to disclose further details about his identity.

The gun-toting suspect was detained about two-and-a-half hours after the hold-up began.

Schindlova told AFP earlier the man had released one hostage before the special operations unit arrived in Pribram, a town some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the capital Prague.

"Before the negotiator arrived, the man had said he didn't want to hurt anyone and that this was no bank robbery," said Schindlova.

"He wanted to negotiate and to file some criminal complaint," she added.