Mumbai hostage crisis: 3-hour siege, 16 children, duct pipe rescue | In photos

Seventeen teenagers between the ages of 12 and 15 were rescued from an audition theatre at Powai in Mumbai on Thursday afternoon following a dramatic three-and-a-half hour-long siege in which a lone man carrying an airgun and an inflammable spray held the children hostage. The operation ended with a Mumbai police team shooting dead the man who has been identified as Pune resident Rohit Arya, aged 50.

The police rescued 17 children, a man and two women who were held hostage by Rohit Arya, in Powai on Thursday. Arya died after being shot in the chest by the police. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Arya, who was married but had no children of his own, used to make short video films and ran school cleanliness campaigns for Maharashtra government when Eknath Shinde was chief minister.