An armed Norwegian bitter at losing custody of his children surrendered to police last night after holding 35 children and adults hostage with a shotgun in a kindergarten.
The man, who had freed hostages in groups until he was holding just five children and two adults in the nursery school in the picturesque fjordside town of Hjelmeland in west Norway, was driven away by police.
"No one was physically hurt," a police spokesman, Mr Anders Bang-Andersen, told Reuters.
The man was taken to custody in Stavanger, a nearby port and base of Norway's oil industry.
The hostage crisis lasted some 11 hours. Just before surrendering, the man unloaded his shotgun and handed the two cartridges to a lawyer.
Angry parents denounced the hostage-taker for using children as pawns to win attention.
About 20 heavily armed police, some wearing black ski masks and bullet-proof vests, had ringed the kindergarten after the man broke in brandishing his gun shortly before midday (local time). An ambulance helicopter had been on standby.
The last children were carried out to ambulances wrapped in bright-coloured duvets after the man, wearing shorts and a white T-shirt, was bundled into a police car. Police did not name him.
The man originally seized 25 children and 10 woman employees at the red-painted day-care centre but freed all but seven during the day.
Mr Bang-Andersen confirmed the man had a shotgun - police had previously been unsure of the type of weapon.
The man said he was angry because he had been denied access to his two sons after losing a custody battle to his ex-partner. Neither of the children attended the kindergarten. "I want to draw attention to my case," he told Norway's independent TV2 by telephone shortly before giving up, accusing social workers and police of letting him down.
He added: "As long as the police stay away none of them [the hostages] are in danger."
"He made his point," said lawyer Mr Tor Erling Staff, who helped broker the surrender. "He feels his case is typical of that of many fathers in childcare cases."
The man's lawyer, Mr Odd Forsell, told Norway's NTB news agency that his client had been barred from even seeing his two sons after being charged with attempted rape.
Norwegian media reports said the man broke into the kindergarten because a woman employee had been due to testify against him in the rape case later this month.
"If people don't hear my case I'll hang myself in a barn," the man said, adding: "I won't do anything stupid if I get my way."
Mr Fred Roger Johansen, a leader of the local council in Hjelmeland, a village of about 1,000 people, had earlier told Reuters that the man was armed with a handgun rather than a shotgun.
Distraught parents, some weeping, had waited in a nearby school for news as the lawyers negotiated with the man.
Children seemed to suffer less immediate shock than parents - one licked a lollipop after she was freed. Several of those held until late at night had slept.
"It's cowardly to get others involved, to exploit children, to involve everyone in your own court case in this way," Ms Marianne Nising, whose five-year-old daughter, Sandra, was held at the kindergarten, told NTB.
"It's been an absolutely terrible day," Mr Hans Wideroe, whose three-year-old son was among those held, told NRK television.
Asked how his son was tackling the trauma, he said: "Kids are good like that. The thing that stuck most in his mind was that he got to drive in an ambulance."