Ax-wielding drunken man surrenders after taking six children hostage and threatening to kill them in St. Petersburg – reports

An ax-wielding man took six children hostage in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, threatening to kill them. The suspect has reportedly surrendered after a standoff with police.

The hostage situation unfolded in St. Petersburg’s southern suburb of Kolpino on Tuesday afternoon. The incident was confirmed by local law enforcement.

The local man barricaded himself within an apartment, taking six kids, aged between three and 15 years, hostage. According to Russian media, the suspect is the father of at least three of the imprisoned children.

The hostage-taker, said to be heavily drunk, is reportedly armed with an axe and a knife. While he has already threatened to kill the children, he has not made any demands. Police psychologists and negotiators have been dispatched to the scene.

Footage purportedly from the scene, circulating on Russian social media networks, shows the shirtless man shouting from the window of his apartment while grabbing onto a child’s neck. The man appears to be holding a knife in his hand.

Some three hours after taking the children hostage, the suspect surrendered to law enforcement, RIA Novosti reported, citing sources.

It was not immediately clear what prompted such extreme behavior, though the media sources suggested the standoff had been triggered by an argument between the suspect and his wife, whom he’d ejected from the apartment before locking himself in.

The man had reportedly experienced mental health issues in the past, although he did not have any run-ins with the law before Tuesday’s incident.

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