Imphal:

Three children and three women are missing from Manipur’s Jiribam since yesterday after an encounter broke out between suspected Kuki insurgents and the security forces. The Manipur Police in a press conference today said the 10 killed in the encounter had enough firepower to create chaos in the affected area in Jiribam, near the border with Assam.

“Security forces have launched an operation to search for the missing people. They are three women and three children. The Assam Rifles, Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force will retaliate if fired upon,” a senior Manipur Police officer told reporters in the state capital Imphal today.

The police officer said a total of 13 internally displaced people were reported missing yesterday from Jiribam. Two have been found dead, five have been traced, and six are missing, the officer said.

The two bodies were of two senior citizens from the Meitei community. Both were found inside a structure that was set on fire by the militants, the police officer added.

Rio de Janeiro:

A gunman who shot and wounded two people and took 17 passengers hostage Tuesday at the main bus station in Rio de Janeiro surrendered and freed his captives after negotiations, Brazilian police said.

“The hostage-taker surrendered, he was arrested, all the hostages were released, they are safe,” said Colonel Marco Andrade of the military police.

Earlier, police said agents from the elite Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) unit were “conducting negotiations on site” after “a man shot two people and took hostages on a bus at the Novo Rio bus station.”

The wounded were taken to hospital.

In total, 17 people were held, including children and elderly, Andrade told reporters outside the station. He said one person had been shot three times, while another had lesser injuries.

Police have not released the identity of the gunman or his motives.

– ‘Everyone is desperate’ –

Images broadcast by the Globonews channel showed chaos at the station in the center of Rio, where buses leave for all regions of Brazil, with police deployed around the area.

“A man drew a gun, started shooting and entered the bus. I have two friends on this bus, everyone is desperate, we don’t know what will happen,” a witness told the broadcaster.

Television footage showed a blue bus stopped in the middle of an empty parking lot.

The terminal was closed after all passengers and employees were evacuated, AFP witnessed.

In 2000, a hostage situation on a bus in a residential area of Rio left two people dead.

The incident kept the nation rapt as it was broadcast live on television for hours, and inspired the 2008 movie “Last Stop 174.”

In 2019, a hijacker armed with what turned out to be a fake gun was shot and killed by police in Rio after he held a busload of passengers hostage for several hours on a major bridge linking the city to the town of Niteroi.

Brazil’s most iconic city, Rio de Janeiro has long been plagued by high crime rates linked to poverty and inequality.

Rio’s sprawling favelas, which crowd the metropolitan area’s hillsides, often overlooking picture-postcard beaches and lush mountains, are the epicenter of gang and drug-related violence.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Monday it had freed two more women hostages abducted to the Gaza Strip from Israel during the October 7 attacks.

The Islamist group’s military wing said in a statement the two had been freed for “compelling humanitarian” reasons following mediation by Qatar and Egypt.

There was no immediate confirmation by Israeli authorities but Israeli media reported that the women had been taken to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Two American women, a mother and daughter, were freed on Friday.

Israel on Monday increased the number of hostages it has confirmed to 222 people seized when Hamas gunmen crossed the border and attacked kibbutz communities, towns and military bases in southern Israel.

Some 1,400 people were killed in the worst attack ever to hit Israel, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel launched an immediate war on Hamas and more than 5,000 people have since been killed in its air attacks on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Hamas accused Israel of having initially refused to accept the two latest hostages to be released.

It also said Israel had violated arrangements for the release “that had been agreed with the mediators”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)