Costa Rica police storm besieged bank, seven dead

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Rican police firing automatic weapons stormed a bank today to try to free hostages taken in a bungled robbery that has left seven people dead.

Television showed police moving in on the Banco Nacional in Santa Elena, in a rainforest northwest of the capital, as helicopters clattered overhead and bullets flew.

One policeman died in the assault, which did not appear to be immediately successful, and a bank guard shot two would-be robbers dead in the initial bank raid on Tuesday night. Four others were dead but it was unclear who they were.

"Until now there are seven dead and nine with gunshot wounds," Red Cross official Arnoldo Alpizar told Reuters.

One of the hostage takers made a telephone request late on Tuesday for $US40,000 ($NZ55,020) and food, Alpizar said.

The robbers took some 20 people hostage but released 18 of them on Wednesday morning.

Costa Rica is generally less violent than neighbouring Central American countries, where youth gang crime is rampant.

But the country's reputation was tarnished last year by corruption scandals and a hostage incident when a policeman shot himself and three other people inside the Chilean Embassy after learning he was to lose his job.

- REUTERS