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RIO DE JANEIRO — Gunmen who engaged in a shootout with police took 30 people hostage Saturday at a luxury hotel popular with foreign tourists, but within hours they freed the captives and surrendered.
The upscale, beachside neighborhood where the Intercontinental Hotel is located was transformed into a war zone as the 10 suspects — armed with high-caliber rifles, grenades and pistols — exchanged fire with police in a shootout that killed a bystander who was getting out of a taxi.
Dozens of other suspects fled into a nearby slum where the shootout began. A police spokeswoman, who could not be identified because she was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the gunmen held hostages in the hotel’s kitchen, “but we negotiated with them.”
