Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi security forces prepared to storm a Catholic church Sunday where gunmen were holding an unknown number of worshippers as hostages, police officials said.
The gunmen seized the hostages after attacking the Baghdad Stock Market, in the central part of the Iraqi capital, earlier Sunday, police said. Four armed men entered the nearby Sayidat al-Nejat church after clashing with Iraqi security forces trying to repel the stock market attack.
The gunmen are demanding that the Iraqi government release a number of detainees and prisoners inside Iraqi prisons, saying the Christian hostages will be freed in return, according to the police officials.
Iraqi security forces have sealed off the area surrounding the church, the officials said, and buildings were evacuated of civilians as precautionary measures. They do not know how many people are inside. At least 13 hostages, including two children, managed to escape, police said.
The Iraqi authorities ordered the attackers to release the hostages and to turn themselves in, warning that they will storm the church if they do not comply.
Two guards were killed and four others were wounded in the earlier attack on the stock market, according to the officials.
The attackers also remotely detonated two car bombs outside the stock exchange, police said.
CNN
