Spanish consulate 'robbers' on run
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 Unidentified assailants have taken over the Spanish consulate in the Swiss capital of Bern. CNN's Al Goodman follows this developing story (February 7).
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(CNN) -- Three armed intruders, thought to be robbers, who took at least three hostages at the Spanish consulate in the Swiss capital Bern are on the run after special forces stormed the building, police said.
The three men, believed to be armed with knives and a handgun, seized the consulate in the Swiss capital shortly before 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday. One captive managed to escape and the two others were let go, they said.
Guido Balmer, a spokesman for Switzerland's Federal Office for Police, said the assailants had been armed with knives and guns.
"I know that finally police forces on site got into the building," Balmer told CNN. "They completed their search of the building, but I don't now whether they found anything."
An official later told Reuters the hostage takers were "on the run, we have not found them in the building."
Swiss police sealed off the area around the consulate, which is located about a kilometer from the embassy, during the standoff.
Police were hunting for the suspects Monday afternoon. Officers sealed off Bern's exclusive Kirchenfeld neighborhood, where the consulate and other foreign diplomatic missions are located, police spokeswoman Franziska Frey told The Associated Press.
A Spanish official said three assailants, wearing masks, had beaten a security guard, who later went to hospital, and took two consulate employees hostage.
The attackers then went for the safe, leading the Spanish foreign ministry to think the motive might have been theft of visas and/or cash.
The ministry does not believe the incident was related to terrorism.
In Madrid, Spain's foreign ministry called it an attempted robbery.
There have been several security crises at foreign embassies and consulates in Switzerland, notably in 1999.
In February 1999, members of Switzerland's Kurdish community staged a peaceful occupation of the Greek Embassy in Bern, as well as the Greek consulate in Zurich and United Nations offices in Geneva.
They were protesting against Greece's help in the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and his handover to Turkey.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
