Activists on social media released the moment of the arrest of gang members who had taken medical staff hostage after raiding a hospital in Ecuador.
Police in Ecuador have arrested seven gunmen who broke into a hospital, trying to kill a teenager who was in hospital.
Members of the armed gang took a number of nursing staff hostage and exchanged gunfire with police before being arrested.
All hostages were freed with no injuries, officials said.
The gang members intended to kill a famous 17-year-old known as Dirty Face, who was believed to belong to a rival gang.
Dirty Face is in the hospital’s intensive care unit, recovering from his gunshot wounds.
Members of the armed gang held five hospital medical staff hostage for more than an hour, an employee told local newspaper El Diario.
Activists released a video clip on social media showing armed masked men pushing a screaming woman through one of the hospital gates and forcing her back into the building.
Other staff at the hospital, located in Chune in western Ecuador, said they locked themselves in hospital rooms as armed men stormed into the rooms, looking for the teenager.
A hospital official told El Diario newspaper that the gunmen “apparently didn’t know the distribution of hospital rooms, so these petty criminals were combing through all the rooms in the building.”
He added: “Thank God and the police that we are still here alive to tell what happened.”
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has praised the police, saying their intervention has saved many lives.
Ecuador’s president posted a video on Twitter showing armed officers entering the hospital building before arresting gang members.
In recent years, Ecuador has seen an increase in violence by armed gangs, some of which resort to horrific practices such as beheadings. The country has also witnessed a series of bloody prison riots.
Analysts attribute this growing violence in Ecuador to Mexican gangs whose activities have spread into the country, where they recruit local gangs to smuggle cocaine.
Since taking office last year, Ecuador’s president has repeatedly declared a state of emergency in the country in an attempt to curb the growing violence.
In early November, President Laso said that attacks by increasingly powerful drug cartels amounted to a declaration of war.
