Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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Eight Hong Kong tourists were slaughtered when an 11-hour siege ended in a bloodbath in Manila last night. Seven emerged alive from the carnage after a tour bus was seized by a disgruntled cop, who held the terrified visitors hostage. One died later.
Bullets flew as police squads surrounded the bus and the rogue cop opened fire in Manila's historic tourist district. Television viewers in Hong Kong and the Philippines watched as the drama unfolded throughout the day.
Last night the survivors were being treated in Manila hospitals. The Hong Kong government said it would charter two flights to Manila for families of the tourists held hostage.
Seven other Hong Kong tourists, including three children and an elderly man, and two Filipinos were released earlier. The Filipino bus driver escaped when the gunman stopped talking and opened fire last night.
Of the eight hostages who emerged alive, two were in serious condition and six had minor injuries.
The hostage-taker, former senior police inspector Rolando Mendoza, who was armed with an M16 rifle, was killed by sniper fire as police stormed the Hong Thai tour bus to end the crisis.
The driver - who escaped moments before police surrounded the bus - told police the hostage-taker had opened fire on the tourists, who were aged between four and 72.
Negotiations went smoothly for several hours before the first shots were fired inside the bus at about 7.25pm.
Police then used sledgehammers to try to break in. Mor
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e shots were fired and police stormed the bus about 7.45pm..Earlier Mendoza freed nine hostages - leaving 15 inside - and demanded his job back to free the rest. He had been dismissed for drugs-related offenses.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said: "This is very tragic and the way it is handled and the outcome is unacceptable.
"I feel extremely sad that the outcome ended up with the death of Hong Kong people in this manner.
"I am sure the government is disappointed. The Hong Kong people, including Filipino residents in Hong Kong, will feel the same way."
A Philippine presidential spokesman said that President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino has been meeting with the police, local government officials and Manila mayor Alfredo Lim.
Mendoza hitched a ride on the bus from the historic walled city of Intramuros at about 10am yesterday and "declared he is taking the passengers hostage" when it reached Jose Rizal Park alongside Manila Bay, police said. Moments before the police assault, Mendoza said he had shot two of his captives and would kill the others if police did not move back.
"I shot two Chinese. I will finish them all if they do not stop," he told the Radio Mindanao Network.
"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," he said.
Hong Thai Travel Services general manager Susanna Lau Mei-sze said the tour group left Hong Kong on Friday for Manila and was scheduled to fly back to Hong Kong yesterday.
Mendoza, 55, was honored by Jaycees International in 1986 as one of the top 10 officers in the country.
But he was suspended in 2008 before being dismissed last year for his alleged involvement in drug-related crimes and extortion, according to police.
"He wants to be reinstated in the service," Manila district police chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay said early in the day.
Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said: "We have never had anything like this before. We are very much concerned."
China's foreign ministry said that its embassy in the Philippines and Hong Kong authorities were in close contact and had already sent personnel to the scene of the siege.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and China's embassy in the Philippines has already made urgent representations with the Philippine embassy in China and relevant Philippine authorities, urging the Philippine side to actively seek the safe rescue of the Hong Kong tourists taken hostage," it said in a statement. |
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