Tbilisi gunfire as Georgia security forces mount siege
Georgia siege: Four dead in Tbilisi 'terror' raid
(about 5 hours later)
Explosions and gunfire have broken out in the Georgian capital Tbilisi as counter-terrorism forces lay siege to a block of flats where suspected militants are holed up.
Three suspected militants and a special forces soldier have been killed in a siege on an apartment in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, reports say.
The security service said several members of a "terrorist group" had refused to surrender and were firing and lobbing grenades from inside.
Explosions and gunfire rocked a block of flats in the Isani district during the 20-hour stand-off, which officials say has ended.
One member of the security forces is reported to have been seriously hurt.
One of the alleged militants was arrested and four soldiers were wounded, officials said.
Some accounts say those trapped inside the building are foreigners.
The suspects were not thought to be Georgian nationals.
Others say they come from the Pankisi Gorge, a Georgian region with a large ethnic Chechen population, some of whom have joined jihadist groups in Syria.
Officials believed them to be members of a "terrorist group" and were working to identify which one, state security administration deputy chief Nino Giorgobiani said.
An AFP reporter on the scene of Wednesday's skirmishes reported hearing multiple explosions and heavy gunfire in Tbilisi's Isani district, which has now been cordoned off by police.
The security service said they had refused to surrender and were firing and lobbing grenades from inside.
One TV station broadcast footage of a burning flat in a multi-storey residential building surrounded by camouflaged soldiers and an armoured vehicle.
Georgia, a mainly Christian country, has not had any jihadist-related incidents in recent years, correspondents say. But it is estimated that about 50 Georgians are fighting or have fought alongside the group known as Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Security service spokeswoman Nino Giorgobiani said in a televised statement that one suspect had been arrested and a special operation was under way to catch several others.
They are mostly ethnic Chechens living in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, an area said to be a centre of Islamist extremism.
She said that preliminary information suggested the suspects were not Georgian nationals but members of a "terrorist group".
"Investigation is under way both in Georgia and abroad to establish the suspects' criminal links," she said.
One report said that the wounded soldier had died during surgery.
Georgia has not had any jihadist-related incidents in recent years, correspondents say, but it is estimated that about 50 Georgians are fighting or have fought alongside the group known as Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
