Kidnapped girl recovers after hammer attack
By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-10 06:05

SHANGHAI: A five-year-old girl who was hit on the head with a hammer by a kidnapper in Shanghai has been transferred to a neurosurgery ward for further observation.

The kidnapper, who also hit himself on the head with the hammer, is also recovering in the same department in Shanghai No 7 People's Hospital.

A girl is saved and taken away by police officers after being kidnapped in suburbs of Shanghai on May 8, 2005. A man from Central China's Hunan Province held a girl hostage near a supermarket and forced the girl's father to drive his car to run away. Police officers succeeded in saving the girl by taking actions four hours later after efforts of negotiation failed. [newsphoto]

"Both of them were not seriously hurt," said Yang Ye, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Shanghai 110 police headquarters received a report around 1:50 pm on Sunday saying that a man had hijacked a car in the carpark of a supermarket in Pudong District. He forced the driver to drive along Yanggao Road by holding the motorist's daughter hostage.

The Shanghai Emergency Response Centre immediately mobilized forces from the city's armed police, fire control and a emergency medical centre.

One hour later, the car was cornered in a blind alley off Jinjing Road and Jujin Road. It was discovered that the kidnapper was armed with two knives and a hammer. The area was blocked off and a special police team was immediately called in.

One expert was sent to the car to negotiate with the kidnapper while two marksmen hid behind a nearby wall, ready to shoot.

After several hours, the man threw one knife out of the car window, but still appeared nervous.

Hammer strike

Half an hour later, after the man suddenly struck the girl on the head with the hammer and was attempting to commit suicide by hitting himself on the head, police broke into the car and took away the girl. The man was arrested immediately.

They two were sent to the nearby Shanghai No 7 People's Hospital.

A doctor from the hospital's operating room said yesterday that they had been sent to the intensive care unit after surgery and then transferred to the neurosurgery ward.

The kidnapper was identified as Zhang Zili, 32, from Muyun Town in Changsha in Central China's Hunan Province, according to an ID card he had on him. Zhang is believed to have arrived in Shanghai on May 1.

However, police refused to discuss the motive for the kidnapping, explaining that the case was still under investigation.

(China Daily 05/10/2005 page3)

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