Powai studio hostage: police shoot suspect, 19 rescued

A man identified as Rohit Arya took 17 children and two adults hostage at an acting studio in Mumbai’s Powai neighborhood on Thursday afternoon, prompting a multiagency police response that ended with all hostages rescued and the suspect shot during the operation, police said. The incident at R A Studio in the Mahavir Classic building began after children arrived for what they had been told were auditions for a web series.

Police received a call around 1:45 p.m. and dispatched Powai officers along with a Quick Response Team, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and a fire brigade team, officials said. Officers attempted to negotiate with the suspect after he posted a video online in which he identified himself as Rohit Arya and said he had moral and ethical demands and wanted to speak to certain people. In the video he warned that he would set the studio on fire or harm himself or the children if prevented from doing so, and said he did not want money.

Negotiations produced no breakthrough, and police entered the studio through a bathroom window, authorities said. During the rescue operation the suspect was shot and later pronounced dead at a hospital, an officer said. All 19...