EDMONTON - After a standoff lasting more than nine hours, Edmonton police safely escorted a distraught woman from a Hazeldean residence shortly before 8:30 p.m. Friday night.

The woman is now in police custody. Residents in the area of 96th Street and 65th Avenue have been permitted to return home.

Southwest division members received reports that a woman was barricaded at a residence in Edmonton’s Hazeldean neighbourhood around 11 a.m. Friday.

Police had asked people to avoid the area as they believed the woman was armed. After responding to the weapons complaint, police set up a command post near the residence and initiated discussions with the woman.

Jane Sterling, spokeswoman for Edmonton Public Schools, said Hazeldean School was put on security alert. All exterior doors to the school were locked and students were kept inside the elementary school.

Sterling said 46 students in an early education program who were to be dropped off at Hazeldean shortly after the noon hour were taken to Waverly school instead.

The students, ranging in age from two to five years old, were dismissed at 3:30 p.m., but only to their parents and/or guardians at the north side of the school.

Staff at the school stayed with the children who live in the cordoned off area until police gave the all-clear.

cklingbeil@edmontonjournal.com

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