Kiev, July 24 (IANS) A man armed with a grenade has taken a policeman hostage in Poltava, central Ukraine, and fled, Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko said on his social media.

"Negotiations are ongoing to force the attacker to surrender to the police without harming himself or others," the official said on Facebook on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Police stopped the armed man at 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Thursday, near the building of the administrative court in the town of Poltava. During the operation, the man took a police officer hostage, threatening to blow up the RGD-5 grenade.

The man then drove away with the hostage. A police special operation called "Thunder" was launched.

This is the second incident involving taking hostages in Ukraine this week. On Tuesday an armed man kept 13 people hostage in the western town of Lutsk for over 12 hours but later freed them.

--IANS rt/