Article content

RIO DE JANEIRO — A police sniper in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday shot dead a man who had hijacked a bus on a bridge across Guanabara Bay and taken 37 people hostage, in a dramatic end to an incident that underlined the daily grind of violence in the Brazilian city.

The hijacking, from which all the hostages emerged unharmed, began before dawn when a masked man commandeered a commuter bus on the bridge connecting Rio with the city of Niteroi. The man took 37 people in the bus hostage before freeing six of them, officials said.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Brazilian police sniper kills Rio bus hijacker, hostages escape safely Back to video

About four hours later, the hostage-taker walked out of the bus, flung a backpack toward police and then fell to the ground as he tried to re-enter the vehicle, TV images showed. Police officials said he was shot by a police sniper.

Videos showed the sniper, positioned for more than an hour on top of a fire truck, celebrating after shooting the man.