KZN hostage drama ends with man 'committing suicide'

High drama played out during a six-hour hostage negotiation saga at a home in Jacaranda Avenue in Verulam, north of Durban, on Tuesday. 

Members of the special task force and hostage negotiators were deployed to the area in Mountain View after a 65-year-old man stormed the home of his in-laws and held four people, aged between 12 and 68, hostage in what is suspected to be a domestic dispute. 

Police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda said an 18-year-old boy managed to escape but was allegedly shot in the arm by the suspect.

After lengthy negotiations for the safe release of the captives, a gunshot sound was heard from inside the house. When the police entered the home, they found the suspect lying in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound and a gun lying next to him.

Netshiunda  said circumstances that led to the hostage-taking are subject to police investigations.

Local security company Reaction Unit South Africa said their information was that the incident was the result of a domestic dispute.

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