A drug addict from another Gulf country used a knife to take his mother and other family members hostage in Abu Dhabi before he was overpowered and arrested by police, a police officer was quoted on Saturday as saying.
The 19-year-old man was under the influence of drugs when he pulled a knife and threatened his mother and his brothers and sisters just after mid night at their apartment on Defence Road in the capital, said Colonel Ibrahim al Zaabi, head of the Shabiya police station, which supervises that area.
Quoted by the Dubai-based Arabic language daily Albayan, Zaabi said a police force surrounded the apartment and devised a plan to break in without endangering the lives of the hostages.
“The force then smashed its way into the apartment and arrested the man...the mother and all family members were safe,” he said.
“The rapid intervention by the police prevented a possible attack on the family by that man, who is suspected of having drugs…we are now interrogating this man to know his reasons for this ugly crime.”