A grenade carrying Albanian, protesting against an alleged police beating, held seven people hostage in a Greek bus early today but was blocked by authorities from taking his captives into Albania.
Police had surrounded the bus outside Florina in Greece's rugged north and were negotiating with the man, who was demanding safe passage to Albania, $780,000 in ransom and two automatic weapons.
"From the first moment we were willing to satisfy the Albanian's demands on the condition that he let the hostages go," a police spokesman, Mr Spyros Doudopoulos, told reporters. "This looks like it is going to be a long night."
Officials said they would not let him leave with the hostages.
"The police have a plan to end this crisis on Greek soil. I hope everything will go well," the Public Order Minister, Mr Michalis Chrysohoidis, told reporters during a break in a special ministerial meeting last night.
The hijacker, who called himself Alexander, seized the bus near the northern port city of Thessaloniki earlier yesterday in what he said was a protest against a beating by Greek police and an attempt to deport him.
"I have been in the country for nine years without doing anything bad and in the last few days they [police] picked me up to deport me. They beat me, and I can't have access to my money in the bank," he told Greek television by mobile phone.
Before being stopped, the bus was heading from Thessaloniki towards the border post of Krystalopigi where Albanian special forces were waiting.
But Mr Veli Myftari, head of the Albanian police, said in Tirana that Albania did not want the man. "Albanian authorities won't let him step on our soil. This is the burden of Greek police," he said.
About 50 people were on board the bus when it was seized, but the hijacker released all but eight almost immediately. He let another hostage free as the bus headed towards the border.
It was the second time in less than two months that an Albanian had hijacked a Greek bus.
Greek authorities have launched a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants, mainly Albanians.