A hijacker armed with explosives took a group of Australian tourists and a translator hostage in China yesterday before police shot and killed him, an Australian embassy official and Chinese media reported.
Ten Australians were taken hostage on a tourist bus in Xian, northwest China, but nine were released soon after, said Janaline Oh, spokeswoman for the Australian embassy in Beijing.
"Nine Australian passengers were released and transported to safety and a 48-year-old woman from New South Wales was not released with the rest of the group," she said.
Chinese police agreed to let the hijacker, Xia Tao, change buses and head to the airport before shooting him as he approached a toll station, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local public security bureau.
Xia was armed with explosives, Xinhua reported.
"Chinese security authorities intervened and secured the release of the woman and the Australian government is pleased the hostages are now safe," Oh said.
Oh said she did not believe the hostages had suffered any injuries.
Xia took the passengers hostage just before 10am and was shot dead at 12:36pm after negotiations failed, the report said, citing the local public security bureau.
It was not clear why he took them hostage.
The 10 Australians flew to Shanghai after the ordeal, where they would be met by the Australian consulate-general in the city, Oh said.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said he was pleased the situation was resolved so quickly and that the hostages were safe.
The Australian embassy in Beijing and the Consulate-General in Shanghai were providing assistance to the Australians involved in the hijack, he said.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS