AT least six of 15 Hong Kong tourists have been killed in a Philippine bus hostage crisis, say reports quoting doctors at the scene.
The hostage crisis in the Philippine capital Manila ended with four captives emerging from a bus alive and the gunman believed to have been killed, according to footage broadcast on television.
Fifteen tourists from Hong Kong were believed to have been on the bus at the end of the 12-hour ordeal, and there were fears for the lives of those who did not get off the bus immediately afterwards.
The body of the man believed to be the gunman, an ex-policeman who hijacked the bus in a desperate bid to get his job back, was seen slumped out of the main door of the vehicle.
Philippine security forces had moved in on busload of Hong Kong tourists who were being held hostage by an armed ex-policeman. Multiple gunshots were heard moments before the heavily-armed police approached the bus in Manila’s historic tourist district just after nightfall. Nearly an hour after the police approached the bus and smashed its windows, they were unable to get inside the vehicle.
There were no clear signs of movement from within the bus, raising fears the gunman armed with an M-16 assault rifle had delivered on his threat to kill his captives. The Filipino driver of the bus had jumped out of a window and escaped just before police approached, while nine other hostages including children were released throughout the day.
Shortly before the police moved in, the gunman, who took control of the bus in the centre of Manila almost 10 hours previously, said he had shot two of his captives and would kill the others if police did not meet his demands. “I shot two Chinese. I will finish them all if they do not stop,” former senior police inspector Rolando Mendoza told the Radio Mindanao Network before police moved in on the vehicle and smashed its windows.
The hostage drama began when when the gunman he boarded a bus in Manila’s tourist district in a desperate bid to clear his name after being discharged for extortion in 2008.
“I can see a lot of SWAT (special weapons and tactics police) coming in. I know they will kill me. They should all leave because anytime I will do the same here,” the gunman told the Radio Mindanao Network. They were the first public comments from Mendoza since he took a busload of mainly Hong Kong tourists hostage this morning.
The gunman earlier released nine tourists, including three children, an elderly man and a Filipino photographer, as the drama near Manila’s historic tourist district was played out live on national television. Police had been negotiating with Mendoza, who was discharged in 2008 for his alleged involvement in drug-related crimes and extortion.
They said he seized the bus in a desperate bid to be reinstated. Philippine authorities said 22 tourists from Hong Kong were originally on board the bus, along with the local driver and two other Filipinos.
The tourists on the bus were aged between four and 72. They were on a three-day tour and were scheduled to return to Hong Kong later today.
The bus was parked in front of a grandstand at Rizal Park, a popular tourist destination just a few blocks from the police headquarters.
The hostage-taking came hours after a South Korean man was killed in a separate attack on a vehicle by gunmen elsewhere in Manila. Two of his companions were seized at gunpoint but later released.
The motive for that attack was not clear, although kidnap-for-ransom gangs often target foreign tourists and businessmen in areas near Manila and in the provinces.
Police said the incidents were not related. Today’s bus hijack recalled a similar hostage-taking in 2007, when a troubled civil engineer armed with a grenade took over a bus and held 30 children but freed them after a 10-hour standoff with police.
The 2007 drama took place near Manila city hall, just off Rizal Park.
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