BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Ending a 10-hour standoff, police in central California stormed a bank early Thursday and seized a robber who had taken eight hostages with what turned out to be a pellet gun.

Jesse Martinez (centre L) is taken into custody by the Tulare County SWAT team on Jan. 26. [Reuters]

    The police used a pack of Kool cigarettes to trick the man into letting go of his last hostage. They left the cigarettes just outside the front door, and when he sent the hostage to retrieve them, officers pulled her to safety.

    A group of SWAT officers burst into the bank and seized the suspect, who gave up without a struggle, according to Tulare County Sheriff Lt. Keith Douglas. "This is a great ending for everybody involved," Douglas said.

    He identified the suspect as Jesse Martinez, 47, an unemployed car salesman and married father of three from Visalia, California, tried to rob a Bank of America branch in Exeter just before closing at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

    He took eight people hostage after employees alerted police, but released three of them within 10 minutes, and set two more free about 10 p.m. in exchange for fried chicken.

    After midnight, the three remaining hostages -- all bank employees -- tried to escape, but Martinez grabbed one and pulled her back inside, Police Chief Clifton Bush said.

    The robber apparently grew unnerved as he approached the bank door with his last hostage around 3 a.m. on Thursday and separated himself from her, giving the hostage an opportunity to flee and the police an opening to grab him.

    "He's very calm and he's just telling us about his life," Rebecca Tejada, one of the hostages, described their whereabouts as inside the bank's automatic teller room, "He's not rude and no one had been hurt. He wanted $100,000."

    Martinez has been jailed on suspicion of bank robbery and hostage-taking. Exeter is a San Joaquin Valley city of about 10,000 residents 150 miles north of Los Angeles. Enditem

    (Agencies)