Three people held hostage at Russian school

Two students and a security officer were barricaded into a third-floor classroom with the man after he freed a fourth hostage identified as a teacher. "The man held a paper bag in his hands and said it contained an explosive device," said Dmitry Beryozin, a police spokesman in the city near the Caspian Sea. The man asked police to bring him food and drink but made no other immediate demands, the regional branch of Russia's Investigative Committee said. Russian news agencies had reported earlier on Thursday that the man was armed with a pistol.