Man releases two hostages at Clinton campaign office

ROCHESTER, New Hampshire - A man claiming to have a bomb strapped to his chest seized several hostages at Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office on Friday before releasing two in a tense standoff with police.

It was unclear whether there were any hostages remaining in the campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire and police were still surrounding the building.

A woman, described as one of the hostages and said to be a campaign volunteer, emerged from the building and was quickly escorted to safety, witnesses said.

New Hampshire's WMUR television said a second hostage had been released but that it was unclear if others were being held by a man whom local media described as mentally unstable and who had told his son earlier in the day to "watch the news."

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, was not in New Hampshire and cancelled a speaking date in Virginia immediately after news of the incident broke.

"She's in Washington D.C.," said Secret Service spokesman Darrin Blackford, who had no further information on her whereabouts. "We're monitoring the situation in New Hampshire but its being treated as a local police matter," Blackford said.

The Rochester campaign offices of rival Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards were evacuated along with nearby businesses. Schools in the area locked their doors during the four-hour standoff.

Clinton and Obama are the Democratic front-runners in the race for the White House. New Hampshire holds the country's first presidential primary vote on January 8 and because of this is a major focus of attention.

A New Hampshire state police bomb squad barricaded the scene and sealed off the area. Located 75 miles (120.7 km) north of Boston.

Rochester is site of one of 16 of Clinton's offices in the state that will hold the first primary election on January 3 that helps kick off the 2008 White House race.

"A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape'," witness Lettie Tzizik told WMUR TV.

Heavily armed police in black protective vests and helmets patrolled the area near the office. Others were stationed nearby, restraining crowds behind yellow police tape in a large cordon as news helicopters hovered overhead.

New England Cable News television reported that the hostage-taker was a man in his 40s who had apparently strapped highway flares to his body.

Anthony Ejarque, 42, owner of Slims Texmex Saloon in the street where Clinton's red-brick campaign office is located said the police had evacuated 30 to 40 customers and workers from his restaurant.

"They came right in and asked everyone to get up and leave and evacuate the kitchen and everybody," Ejarque said in a telephone interview." There are SWAT teams or whatever they call them now on the street."

Ejarque said it was "very quiet on the street, you really can't see anything, but there apparently is a guy with a bomb in the Hillary building, which is right across the street for us. We managed to sneak back into the building."