KIEV (REUTERS) - More than 50 people left a state security service building early on Wednesday that had been seized by pro-Russia activists in eastern Ukraine, following negotiations between protesters and officials, Ukraine's state security service (SBU) said.

The SBU said on Tuesday that the protesters who seized the local headquarters of state security in Luhansk on Sunday had wired it with explosives and were holding 60 people hostage, though this was denied by the protesters themselves.

The SBU said early on Wednesday that 51 people had left the building without arms. It was unclear if they were protesters or hostages.

Interfax news agency later put this number at 56 and said negotiations were continuing between the protesters and local officials to end the occupation.