Father Refusing to Hand over Children Prompts Eight-hour Police Operation

Golianovo, 29 January (TASR) - The Nitra Region Police Directorate has confirmed a successful conclusion to an operation in the village of Golianovo (Nitra region), where a father was holding two young children in a house on Wednesday (28 January), refusing to hand them over to their mother. The police action lasted for eight hours, with several police units being involved. No one was injured during the operation, said the police. The family drama began on Wednesday afternoon, when employees of the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Office delivered a court ruling to the father of the two children but the man refused to respect it. The office employees knew that the man held a firearms licence and was in possession of a weapon. "For this reason, several components of the police, including negotiators and a crisis intervention team, were mobilised and immediately deployed to the scene," confirmed the police. The sole aim of the operation was to protect lives, mitigate the impact of the situation on the minors present, and move them to a safe location. During the eight-hour stand-off, a negotiator maintained active communication with the man and managed to lure him out of the house, where he was detained. The children came under the care of the crisis intervention team and were later handed over to social guardianship staff. ko/df