Bangkok (People’s Daily) - A gunman took around 30 hostages at a popular shopping mall in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila on Monday morning, ABS-CBN reported.

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One person was shot and was being treated at the hospital, said San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora. The suspect, a "disgruntled" security guard, was believed to be carrying firearms and a grenade, the mayor added.

Hundreds of shoppers and employees have been evacuated by police after gunfire was heard on the second floor of the mall. "We are currently negotiating with this person," Zamora told local media.

The suspect is a security guard who was fired from his job at the mall days earlier. He came back to “make some demands” and tried to convince other security staff “to join him in some sort of coup d’etat against the mall management,” the mayor explained.

The police have encircled the shopping mall with heavily armed SWAT teams at the scene.