Malaysian children safe after hostage-taker shot

MALAYSIA: Malaysian police on Thursday said the man who took 30 pre-school children and four teachers hostage at a kindergarten in a dramatic seven-hour standoff had died after being shot in the head.

Authorities said all the children and their teachers were rescued unharmed after a sharpshooter ended the crisis in southern Malaysia with a single shot after a team of elite police stormed the building.

“We have ended the hostage taking. The children and teachers are safe. The hostage taker armed with a hammer and machete has been taken to a local hospital,” a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Late Thursday Johor deputy police chief Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the man was also responsible for a 2010 attack on another kindergarten in the same area - Muar - in which three six-year-olds were bludgeoned with a hammer.

On that occasion the attacker escaped and could not be traced by police. AFP