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The police and all other law-enforcement bodies have been calling on the gunmen to surrender and avoid criminal actions, otherwise we are ready to incapacitate them and free hostages kept inside a seized police station, Deputy Chief of Armenian Police Hunan Poghosyan told reporters at a briefing.
    
To his words, police forces possess necessary means and have been taking up necessary preventive and operative investigatory measures to resolve the standoff, after hours the group of armed people stormed Yerevan’s patrol police regiment in Erebouni district of the Armenian capital.  

To remind, the armed group members, who stormed the police station on Sunday morning and took several police officers as hostages, identified themselves as supporters of Jirair Sefilian, an opposition figure arrested on June 20 and accused for illegal procurement of weapons with intention for organizing a criminal group to stage armed uprising in the state.  

“If our calls are ignored, we are ready to incapacitate them, since no other measures are applicable to murderers,” Hunanyan added.

Asked whether specific deadlines are set for the negotiations underway, Deputy Chief of Police noted: “We continue negotiations since there is still hope to resolve the situation through peaceful means.”

Poghosyan next reflected on the demand presented by the gunmen, which is the release of Jirayr Sefilian. Poghosyan next informed seven police officers are kept inside the station, Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeri Osipyan among them.  

Poghosyan also informed that Police Colonel Artur Vanoyan was killed during the seizure operation of the police station. Another Police Colonel Aram Hovhannisyan, Deputy Colonel Hrach Khachatryan and non-commissioned officer Gagik Mkrtchyan received gunshot wounds.