HAVANA, May 3: A fierce gun battle broke out at Havana's Jose Marti airport on Thursday between police and three fugitive soldiers attempting to commandeer an aeroplane to leave the country, an airport source said.

“Now everything is under control, but there was a fierce gunfight,” the source said, saying the men were riding a bus toward a Boeing 737 at the Terminal 1 when the shooting took place.

There was no official government confirmation of the incident or information on casualties, but an airport official said that everything was normal at the airport.

The three men, young conscripts who fled their military unit on Saturday near Managua southeast of Havana, were “neutralised” by the police, according to an airport worker.

The incident took place early on Thursday when the men seized several hostages in seeking to take over an aircraft which had arrived from Santiago de Cuba at the east end of the island.

“The plane had arrived from Santiago and fortunately all the passengers had already gotten off. Only the crew were left, who then escaped through the front hatch. They were thinking the kidnappers wanted to leave the country.” Since the weekend Havana has been abuzz with talk of the three soldiers and security was tightened on roads into the capital.—AFP