A security guard, two teachers and two students were taken as hostages at a college in Astrakhan by a man claiming to have a bomb in a box, RIA Novosti reports.
The local directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee says that there were four hostages and the man had a pistol and a box.
Major-General Grigory Kulik, head of the Directorate of the Interior Ministry, is taking measures at the place of incident. The police have surrounded the building and evacuated people from the college and nearby buildings.
