An armed man in a wheelchair held three people hostage at a post office in the US state of Virginia, forcing officials to cordon off three blocks of the small town which was filled with holiday shoppers.
There were no reports of injuries, however shots were fired during the eight-hour long stand-off in which the man, believed to be carrying explosives, made no demands other than to ask for a pizza.
A SWAT team and bomb technician were sent into the post office, in the rural mountain town of Wytheville, and police at the scene said that the man had five pounds of a common plastic explosive strapped to his chest.
Susan Holman, the manager of a store across the street, said officers had told employees to leave the building because there was a man with explosives in the post office. “The officer told us the man had enough explosives to take out the whole block,” Ms Holman told a local newspaper.
After several hours authorities ordered the suspect to let the hostages go and come out with his hands up. Soon afterwards, four people left the building, including a man in a wheelchair who surrendered to a police robot.
Police later said Warren Taylor of Tennessee is being questioned and authorities do not yet have a motive.
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