Monday, 28 April 2008

Cambodian siege school gunmen are unmasked

Evening News, The Edinburgh Paper
Saturday, 26th April 2008

GRIEF overcomes the parents of a two-year-old boy shot dead during a school siege in Cambodia as they weep over their child's body.

The Canadian boy was shot in the head during an eight-hour stand-off in which 70 people were held hostage by masked gunmen who had demanded $1000. Police today arrested a security guard suspected of masterminding the hostage-taking at the school near the famous Angkor Wat temples.

Ul Samnang, 29, worked at a souvenir shop and did not take part in yesterday's hostage drama at the international school in Siem Reap.

The four hostage-takers, all Cambodians in their 20s who were seized at the end of an eight-hour siege, were also being held in the tourist town.

After a night of questioning by police, the four were paraded battered, bruised and caked in blood in front of the media.

Armed with a handgun and knives, the men stormed into the international school yesterday morning, first demanding $1000 and a van, increasing the sum later to $30,000, police said.

"This group are gangsters and they committed crimes of robbery and kidnap. We are expecting to send them to court to be charged tomorrow morning," Ou Em, chief of Siem Reap's serious crime office said.

The two-year-old Canadian boy was shot in the head after talks to free the 29 infants hit a stumbling block over the kidnappers' demands for weapons, he said.

"The gunmen demanded we give them money, a van and grenades.

"We did not agree to give them grenades and guns, so they got mad and shot the kid in the head," he said.

Doctors at the town's main hospital were setting up a trauma unit for the children, who came from as many as 14 different countries, to help them overcome the ordeal.

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