Three men have been detained after Belgian police stormed an apartment building in the western city of Ghent to end a siege where an alleged hostage was being held on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
The hostage was reportedly safe and unharmed when released, a spokeswoman for state prosecutors said.
"Three men have been taken away though there were no weapons found. The earlier reports were of four men with kalashnikovs," she said. "...It's not entirely clear whether someone was in fact taken hostage."
Initially, the situation in Belgium was believed to be an act of terrorism since it occurred within hours of a gunman in Sydney, Australia, walking into a downtown café, holding an undetermined number of hostages, and forcing them to display an Islamic flag as police placed nearby areas on lockdown.
But according to local media reports, the Ghent situation had no links to terrorism, and might instead have involved a dispute over drugs, the BBC News reported.
"There appears to be nothing political," Belgian federal police spokeswoman Annemie Serlippens said of the situation. "This isn't the same sort of incident as the events in Sydney."
Early Monday morning, three armed gunmen reportedly occupied an apartment building in a working-class neighborhood, with police immediately closing off surrounding streets and setting up a security perimeter.
Around 1 p.m., heavily armed police officials moved into the cordoned-off building in the Dampoort district and found the alleged victim in his apartment unharmed, Reuters reported. It wasn't clear if he had been attacked or held hostage.
"It's over," one police officer said while at least two men were seen leaving the building with their hands up. There are no further details on how the third man came out or whether police were still looking for more suspects, according to Fox News.
The flat had been used by drug dealers, according to neighbors cited by Belgian broadcaster VRT.
Meanwhile, a hostage incident linked to extortion had occurred in Ghent two months ago, local media reported.
