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Editor’s note: This article has been updated. Click here for the latest information on this developing story.
Update, 1:45 p.m. Sunday: Police handcuffed a man who emerged from a room on the first floor, and said in an update that the suspect has been arrested. Officials have not identified the man.
Police have detained and are questioning others; in the meantime, Eagle Street has been reopened, police said.
Original story:
Anchorage police warned the public to stay away from a downtown hostel where a SWAT standoff is unfolding Sunday afternoon.
The standoff began when officers tried to serve a warrant on a person staying at the Backpackers Inn, on Eagle Street east of downtown, the Anchorage Police Department said in an alert at noon Sunday.
The man, who has not been named, “barricaded himself inside a room and has ignored officer’s commands to exit.”
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At the scene early Sunday afternoon, SWAT officers on a loudspeaker repeatedly told the subject to come out of his room with hands raised in the air. At least a dozen police vehicles blocked off every entrance to Eagle Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, surrounding the motel-style complex of short-term rental rooms.
At about 1:30 p.m., officers donned gas masks.
Police had previously warned neighbors the SWAT team might deploy gas, so people with respiratory problems should make sure doors and windows are closed, police warned.