Thirty Pre-school Children Taken Hostage in Malaysia

Kindergarten's Building

A man took 30 pre-school children and four teachers hostage in southern Malaysia, police and the parents of the children announced on Thursday. They added that negotiations are under way for their release.

According to Malaysian agency Bernama, the man who took them hostage was armed with a machete and a hammer.

Heavily armed police surrounded the bungalow where the kindergarten children and their teachers are being held and are trying to determine the hostage-taker to release them and to surrender.

Police announced that a squad of the Special Action Forces was brought from the capital of the country, Kuala Lumpur, and that they are skilled in hostage situations and are very sharp shooters.

It is not the first time this region of Malaysia had to go through such a turmoil. In March last year a man entered a kindergarten with a hammer in his hands, and heart three six-years children.

There were other 20 children eating breakfast at the time the man entered the kindergarten, and the kindergarten operator was injured.

A local newspaper alleged that the same man committed both acts of violence against children, in March last year and now, but the police were unable to confirm.

Map of Malaysia

Sources said that the kidnapper told police that he wanted a gun and threatened to kill the children otherwise. After he spoke to a psychiatrist, he calmed town and requested food.

Parents of the children are reported to have begun shouting over the fence, frustrated that the negotiation was taking so long.

Update: The Malaysian police solved the case of hostage-taking by shooting in the head the aggressor. All children are safe, police reports.