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Armenian president urges gunmen to release hostages

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A protester stands on a barricade confronting a police cordon near a police station in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, July 21, 2016. More than 50 people have been injured in clashes near a police station in Armenia\'s capital where armed men have been holding hostages for four days and protesters erected barricades on a nearby avenue. (Hrant Khachatryan/PAN Photo via AP)

YEREVAN, Armenia – The president of Armenia has called on the gunmen holding hostages in a police station to lay down arms and release the police officers they’re holding.

The police station in capital Yerevan was seized Sunday by gunmen seeking the release of an opposition figure who was arrested in June for illegal weapons possession. Supporters of the gunmen have rallied outside the police station, and clashed with the police late Wednesday.

President Serzh Sargsyan on Friday met with the country’s top law enforcement officials to discuss the crisis and called for the hostages to be released. Sargsyan said that the government’s actions “will be in line with Armenia’s laws,” but did not say whether he would ask police to storm the building.

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