KYIV. April 9 (Interfax) - The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has said that activists, who seized the building of the regional SBU office in Luhansk, have placed explosives in the building and taken hostages.
"The SBU anti-terrorist group, which is carrying out measures to secure the SBU administrative building in Luhansk after it was seized by members of a radical organization, has established that the perpetrators have mined the premises," the SBU said in a press release posted on its website on Tuesday.
"Threatening with weapons and explosives, the separatists are holding about 60 people as hostages, not allowing them leave the building and go back home. In other words, they are resorting to the means used by terrorists," the statement said.
The SBU has called for the hostages to be released freely, weapons to be surrendered and bombs removed from the administrative building, the statement said
There are no SBU officials among the hostages, an informed source told Interfax. "They are local civilians," he said.
The Euromaidan opponents occupied the regional SBU building in Luhansk on April 6.