PESHAWAR, Sept 13: Hundreds of personnel of law-enforcement agencies besieged the Regi Area late on Saturday night after reports that armed men had made a number of people hostage in a government building.

Over 500 police and Frontier Constabulary personnel, backed by armoured personnel carriers, were rushed to the area close to the Khyber Agency, in the north-western outskirts of the provincial capital.

Police said that no government building was occupied and the action was taken only to check movement of some armed suspects.

Peshawar’s senior superintendent of police, Kashif Alam, said that it appeared to be a false alarm and “it is not clear why private TV channels had aired reports of occupation of a government building”.

The security personnel moved in after TV channels reported that around 100 militants had occupied the site office of City Development and Municipal Department in Regi Lalma Township on Nasirbagh Road.

At the time of filing of this report, personnel of law-enforcement agencies had taken positions on the main Nasirbagh Road, but they were facing problem in locating the militants because it was pitch dark.