Police have arrested a knife-wielding masked man who took a group of young children hostage at a schoolnear Barcelona.
Security sources said all the 25 children emerged unharmed from the more than three-hour ordeal at the school in the southern suburb of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
Officials said the man had entered the school at around 3.00 p.m. He held the class of 11-year old children at knifepoint and demanded a million euros to release them.
Authorities cordoned off the school and the local mayor and a police chief negotiated with the hostage-taker, an official from the mayor's office in L'Hospitalet said.
Local media said emergency services were treating for shock some of the parents of the children, who were aged between 11 and 12 years.
AFP