Police kill hostage-taker ending standoff at Illinois hospital

[May 16, 2017]    (Reuters) - Police shot and killed a county jail inmate receiving treatment at a hospital near Chicago after he grabbed his guard's gun and took a female hospital employee hostage on Saturday, the sheriff's office said.

Patrick Gengler, a spokesman for the Kane County Sheriff's Department, said in an email that police ended the standoff by fatally shooting the male inmate at Delnor Hospital, in the suburban city of Geneva, Illinois.

Media reports had said earlier that no one was injured during the incident.

The inmate held the employee in a room near the hospital's emergency ward for several hours, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Kimberly Waterman, a hospital spokeswoman, declined to comment.

(This story was refiled to fix typo in first paragraph)

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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