Bengal Police avert hostage crisis in school

A gun-wielding man barged into a packed classroom at a high school in West Bengal’s Malda district Wednesday afternoon but was overpowered by police and arrested, officials said. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was holding an administrative meeting in Kolkata at the time, came out to compliment the police for averting what is being seen as a potential school hostage crisis.
Panic gripped the students of Muchia Anchal Chandra Mohan High School at Old Malda 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 stated. The man identified by bystanders as Vallabh kept shouting that he “would shoot if someone shot him”.
The person who is being questioned was, however, overpowered by bystanders and police personnel and arrested, the officer said, adding that a pistol, two bottles containing some liquid, and a knife were seized from his possession. The bespectacled man claimed he acted in this way because his son and wife have been missing for a year, and he wanted to exert pressure on the administration to take note of it. However, according to his neighbours, the man in his mid-40s is separated from his wife, and his child lives with her.