Developing: Armed Attackers Take Hostages in Bangladesh Attack
Update II: CNN is reporting that “some officials cast doubt on the claim” that it was an ISIS attack, and Reuters reports: “Bangladesh security forces were preparing to free around 20 hostages.”
Update: ABC News reports that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier:
Armed attackers stormed a restaurant in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday and have taken an unknown number of hostages.
Police and the gunmen exchanged fire and at least two officers have died.
“We want to resolve this peacefully. We are trying to talk to the attackers,” BBC News quotes Benazir Ahmed, chief of the Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh’s elite police force, as saying.
“Our first priority is to save the lives of the people trapped inside,” he said.
Details are still emerging about the attack, but media reports thus far indicate that the attack began at roughly 9 PM at the Holey Artisan Bakery, which is located in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone.
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