Police rescue all four hostages after 24-hour standoff

By Yu Ran (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-18 09:57

SHANGHAI: A wealthy industrial boss and his family were rescued after a hostage taker was shot dead by police after a 24-hour standoff.

The hostage taker, identified as a migrant worker from Jiangxi province surnamed Lin, had demanded a ransom of 3 million yuan ($439,000).

Early Monday morning, armed with a pistol and two bags of self-made detonators, Lin barged into a private villa in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

The villa's owner, Chen Anle, is the boss of Wenzhou Jinsheng Shoes Industry Co Ltd, a key enterprise of Wenzhou's shoe-making industry.

"They are nice people and we hope the police will set up more security around the neighborhood," said a friend of Chen who lives nearby.

According to local police, Lin followed the nanny into the house when she came back from early market shopping around 7 am. He then held Chen, his wife, their 15-year-old son and the nanny hostage.

But Chen's wife was able to call police without the hostage taker noticing.

Police immediately set up a perimeter around the villa, making preparations for negotiations and organizing medical supplies.

Lin first demanded 1 million yuan by noon. After negotiations with police, Chen was allowed to leave to get the cash.

After Chen returned with the money, the hostage taker changed his mind and asked for another 2 million yuan.

Chen and his wife were allowed to fetch the money while the 15-year-old boy and the nanny remained with the hostage taker.

About 2 pm the couple came back with the money. Lin then asked police to leave the neighborhood and he planned to leave with the money, holding the boy and the nanny. He changed his mind again at the last moment and stayed in the villa.

By 3 pm, 11 snipers and two more police cars with armed police arrived in the neighborhood.

One team of armed police sneaked into the second floor of the villa during the evening and hid there for the whole night. Meanwhile, rescue teams rehearsed in another villa with similar rooms.

Just before 7 am yesterday, armed police entered the villa and took up positions.

As Chen, who had been ordered by the hostage taker to buy food, returned home and opened the door, four policemen shot Lin dead through the open door.

The four were then rescued.

After the rescue, Chen's mobile was turned off. His brother refused a telephone interview with China Daily.

"I'm very busy at the moment. They're all safe now, and we don't want to expose more of the incident to the media," his brother said.

Chen's firm has four international design and production lines and around 800 employees, with its major clients from Taiwan.

The neighborhood is famous for its 16 luxury villas equipped with private gardens and pools. The market price for each villa is around 40 million yuan.