Consulate Standoff In Switzerland

Three unidentified assailants seized the Spanish consulate in the Switzerland on Monday, taking three hostages who were later freed, authorities said.

The assailants wounded a security guard, who was then able to escape, said Juerg Mosimann, spokesman for Bern cantonal police. The other two hostages were later freed by police. The three assailants were still in the building but held no more hostages, he said.

"According to our latest information, the hostage situation still isn't over," said Mosimann. "The police are trying to make contact with them."

Three assailants — believed to be armed with knives and a handgun — stormed the consulate in the Swiss capital shortly before 8 a.m., police said.

Their nationalities were not immediately know and Spanish officials said robbery was likely their motive.

"They tried to steal passports and visas, which can be sold on the black market," reported Swiss television reporter Hans Barenbold.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said none of the consulate's Spanish staff members were hurt, according to Spanish news agency Efe.

Moratinos said that three people of unknown nationality had gone in wearing masks, trying to commit a robbery, Efe reported.

An employee "was thrown out in the street and a passing-by police car detected it," Barenbold told Britain's Sky TV News.

Ministry spokesman Angel Vazquez told Spanish National Radio that two consulate staffers had been taken hostage but they were not hurt.

"Apparently, judging from the information we have received, from the outset the three assailants wanted to get at the safe," Vazquez said. "This makes one think their goal was money, but this is just speculation. It will take some time for us to establish with certainty the exact nature of this act."

Bern City Police spokeswoman Franziska Frey told The Associated Press that officers sealed off part of the Kirchenfeld neighborhood. Many foreign diplomatic missions are located in the upscale part of the city.

There have been a handful of previous security crises at foreign embassies and consulates in Switzerland, notably in 1999.

In February that year, members of Switzerland's Kurdish community staged a daylong, peaceful occupation of the Greek Embassy in Bern, as well as the Greek consulate in Zurich and United Nations offices in Geneva. They were protesting Greece's help in the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and his handover to Turkey.