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Hostage taker shot dead in SW China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-02 06:59

GUIYANG: A man who took a boy hostage was shot dead by police in southwest China's Guizhou Province early Sunday morning.

The man, who took a 10-year-old boy hostage in Qingzhen District in Guiyang City just after midnight Saturday, asked for a ransom of 500,000 yuan ($73,234) and a vehicle to flee, said Liao Weiguo, chief of the district's police bureau.

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The police managed to negotiate the ransom down to 150,000 yuan and gave him the money and vehicle. The hostage taker let go of the boy but demanded one of the boy's relatives to drive him out of the city, Liao said.

The hostage taker, who carried two detonators with 0.95 kilogram of explosives, was shot dead at 6:00 a.m. as he fled to an ambush of SWAP police and refused to surrender, Liao said.

The explosives were then defused.

The hostage taker had claimed himself to be a native of Anshun City of Guizhou Province and that he needed money because he lost much in gambling, Liao said.

Another hostage-taking was solved without bloodshed in Kunming City, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province Saturday, the city's police said in a statement Sunday.

Wu Wenkui, a 32-year-old migrant worker, took hostage of a 23-year-old woman called Yang Lifeng in an ATM booth, according to the statement.

After eight hours of negotiation, the police successfully rescued the hostage and caught the suspect on the spot, the statement said.

Wu claimed he had committed the hostage-taking to draw public attention on his unpaid wages, the statement said.

The police are further probing into the case.