Portugal hostage-taking ends with officer, assailant dead

LISBON - A hostage-taker barricaded himself inside a Portuguese restaurant on Sunday and set off explosives, killing a police officer before he was shot dead, the gendarmerie said.

Six others including four police were injured by explosives in the seven-hour ordeal in a restaurant in central Portugal, gendarmerie spokesman Jorge Goulao said.

The man, described as of eastern European origin, originally entered the restaurant in Pinhal Novo to eat but then pulled out a gun and threatened customers demanding money.

Most of the customers at "The Refuge" eatery were able to flee and alert the police.

One officer was hospitalised while the two civilians suffered only minor injuries.