A middle-aged murder accused out on bail took around 20 children hostage, some of them as young as two, after inviting them to his house on Thursday saying he wanted them to attend his daughter’s birthday.

Officials said Subhash Batham had also fired at policemen who had gathered in large numbers outside the house in Karasiya, a village in Farrukhabad district in Uttar Pradesh.

The police finally entered the house at 1am — around 10 hours after Batham had locked the children in his house. It was not immediately clear what was happening inside but a police source said all the children had been rescued.

Earlier, around 11.20pm on Thursday, Batham had allowed a two-and-a-half-year-old girl to leave the house, the police and the child’s father had confirmed.

Mohit Agrawal, inspector-general, Kanpur zone, had earlier said Batham had a firearm and had fired six rounds. “The criminal who is out on bail… has injured at least three people, including two policemen,” Agrawal had said around 10pm.

“His only demand was to call the local MLA (Nagendra Singh) as he wanted to say something to the lawmaker. But the criminal didn’t talk to the MLA. Maybe, he is mentally unstable.”

Villagers realised the children were in danger when Batham locked the gate of his house and appeared on the terrace around 3pm. “You people had given the police information about me. Now you will face the consequences,” he had shouted.

He appeared on the terrace again at 10:20pm and declared: “I will blow up my house with the kitchen (LGP) cylinder if the police don’t retreat.”

A villager said Batham’s wife and five-yea-old daughter were among the children taken hostage, all aged between two and 10 years.

She also said Batham had celebrated his daughter’s birthday a few months ago.

Batham had been convicted of murdering a relative 10 years ago and jailed before he got bail a year later. He was arrested again last year on a robbery case and is out on bail.

Lulu Singh, a villager, who suffered pellet injuries, said: “Earlier, he had said he was taking revenge on the villagers because they informed the police about his whereabouts. But when I went to his gate to request him to release the children, he said he would punish the police, which are his enemy. Then he fired at me.”

A team from the anti-terrorist squad had reached the village, around 230km from Lucknow.

“Our anti-terrorist squad and a team of officers specialised in dealing with such situations are there…. Our foremost priority is to rescue the children safely,” P.V. Rama Shastri, additional director-general of police, law and order, had said earlier.

A police source said the state had requested the central government to send NSG commandos to the village.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a video-conference with police and administrative officials in Farrukhabad.