By Andy Rose, CNN
(CNN) — A hostage standoff in Bakersfield, California, stretched through Tuesday evening and continues into early Wednesday morning, as police say a man believed to have a bomb barricaded himself inside a bank building.
Negotiators have been speaking by phone to the man, who investigators believe barricaded himself inside the multistory Chase Bank building Tuesday afternoon with several hostages, police in the city some 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles said.
Two hostages had been released by Tuesday night after negotiations, police said. Details on how many more people remained inside weren’t immediately available. No injuries have been reported, and police have not given details about the hostage taker’s demands.
“Every single resource is at the site’s disposal,” Bakersfield police Sgt. Eric Celedon said Tuesday afternoon. “SWAT team, bomb squad, gang team, gang unit, negotiators, drone team. Every single asset we have to bring this to a state of conclusion is out here right now.”
Members of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team are also on the scene, a law enforcement source familiar with the operation told CNN.
Celedon did not specify the number of hostages, saying only the suspect was “contained inside a room with a number of our community members and is refusing to let them out.”
The first call to Bakersfield police was at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, informing them of a bomb threat at the Chase Bank building.
“During the investigation, it was determined that an adult male subject had barricaded himself inside the building with several community members,” Bakersfield police said in a release Tuesday.
The FBI is “continuing to support the response,” according to the bureau’s Sacramento field office.
In addition to Chase Bank, the building houses a student services center for the Kern County superintendent of schools. Police have not said in what part of the building the man is barricaded. A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase told The Associated Press its branch on the ground floor of the building was empty.
Police tape was stretched across several intersections as the area around the building was cordoned off. Government buildings – including City Hall and police headquarters – were put on lockdown as a precaution, CNN affiliate KBAK reported. Fatigue-clad FBI agents were seen next to an armored vehicle Tuesday. A police drone flew overhead.
Bakersfield – best known as a western cultural hub of country music – is on the southern end of California’s Central Valley, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. It has a population of around 420,000 – roughly the same as that of Tampa, Florida – and Bakersfield’s metropolitan area is the ninth-largest in California.
“The best way the public can help at this time is by avoiding the area and allowing law enforcement officers, negotiators, and other trained professionals the space and opportunity to safely carry out their duties,” Mayor Karen Goh said in a statement to KBAK.
CNN’s Josh Campbell and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.
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Two hostages are released, but standoff with man after bomb threat at California bank building stretches on News Channel 3-12.
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