SHANGHAI - Local police shot and killed a man who held a 3-year-old girl at knifepoint for more than six hours at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in western Shanghai, state media said.

Police officers rescue a four-year-old girl after shooting dead a man who held her hostage yesterday afternoon in downtown Shanghai.  [Xinhua]

Shanghai Television news said in a brief report that the man was shot and killed at 9:35 p.m. (1335 GMT) Wednesday after a long standoff with police. It said the girl was unharmed.

More than 100 police and a large crowd of about 800 spectators had converged on the fast food restaurant in the Putuo district after the man grabbed the toddler at around at 3:00 p.m. (0700 GMT), the television station said earlier.

After the shooting, police could be seen collecting evidence in the restaurant and putting up white boards on the inside of the windows to prevent people from looking in.

An earlier broadcast said officers believed the man, who was in his 40s, had mental problems because he demanded two large bouquets of flowers and later requested a taxi.

The man's family had been at the scene trying to help officers convince him to release the girl, it said.

The child's mother was in the restaurant when the girl was taken hostage but was later evacuated by police, it said.