'Quite an ordeal' for hostage woman

The building was surrounded by armed police

A woman who was held hostage inside an office building by a gunman claiming to have a bomb has said she will go back to work as soon as possible.

The 34-year-old woman, manager of the American Express exchange bureau in the Haymarket, central London, was praised by police for the calmness she showed in building up a rapport with the man.

After she was released unharmed the single woman, who has worked at the exchange for a year but did not want to be identified, said she just wanted to go home.

A 48-year-old South American man was arrested by police on suspicion of armed robbery and was taken to a west London police station to be questioned.

No shots

The woman said: "I'm pleased that it's all over and I'll be pleased to get home.

"I'd like to stress that he treated me very well in the circumstances - it could have been a lot worse.

"I'm looking forward to getting back to normal and do intend to get back to work as soon as possible."

Officers found a handgun, knife and crowbar in the building but no explosives.

No shots were fired and no one was injured.

'Removed safely'

The siege brought a large area around Piccadilly Circus to a standstill on Thursday morning.

At the scene Commander Richard Bryan said the gunman had remained calm during face-to-face negotiations to end the siege and had not made any demands.

Mr Bryan said: "Clearly our priority was ensuring that the female employee was removed safely from the building and that we got the man out safely with the gun as well.

"She had quite an ordeal as anybody would in those circumstances but she is fine at the moment.