Police in Florida arrest bank robbery suspect, free 11 hostages

(Reuters) – Police arrested a suspected bank robber and freed 11 people who were briefly taken hostage during an attempted heist at a bank in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday, authorities said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the suspect had been armed with a handgun but that no one was shot.

“Reports of people shot are inaccurate and untrue,” the sheriff’s office said on Twitter.

Law enforcement officers had raced to the Community First Credit Union bank after receiving a call just after 9:00 a.m. reporting a robbery there.

A sheriff’s office spokeswoman said the suspect barricaded himself inside the building with the hostages, while SWAT team officers and negotiators sought to contact the suspect.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish)