US hostage drama ends as gunman taken into custody (Second Lead)

WASHINGTON - An armed man, who held some hostages in a commercial building in the US state of Maryland, was shot by police and taken into custody Wednesday, police said.

All three hostages are now safe and out of the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, Maryland, where the hostage-taking took place, Thomas Manger, police chief of Maryland’s Montgomery County, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.