Yerevan: NSS arrests accomplices of armed group that seized police HQ

PanARMENIAN.Net - A group of people affiliated with the members of the armed group that stormed a police department in Yerevan and took everyone inside hostage have been arrested, Armenia's National Security Service reports.

The armed group are members of the Sasna Tsrer movement. One police officer was killed, and several more were wounded in a shootout that broke as the members of the group hit the gates of the police department with a Ural track. Several captives have been set free so far. The hostages include Armenia's deputy police chief General Major Vardan Eghiazaryan and Yerevan deputy police chief Colonel Valeri Osipyan. The group demand the release of Jirair Sefilian, the founder of the Founding Parliament who was arrested on June 20, as he and a group of people had allegedly planned to seize premises and communication facilities, including the Yerevan TV tower.

According to the NSS, those inside the police HQ "directly supervise and give instructions to their accomplices so that the latter can organize and implement provocative and criminal acts that endanger citizens' lives and spread panic and incite clashes among them."

The NSS said a person was arrested as he was trying to illegally take weapons, including grenades to the blocked area near the seized police department. Another one was arrested while carrying plastic bags with Molotov cocktails to later use them in the same area.

"Other people, complicit with the armed group are under constant surveillance of competent state bodies," the NSS said.

"Every measure is being taken to suspend and suppress possible illegal actions."

The Security Service in its message urged people to be vigilant in crowded areas, immediately leave the territory in the event of noticing strange behavior or suspicious objects and inform law enforcement authorities about the incident.