Malaysian children safe after suspect shot

Malaysian police yesterday said the man who took 30 pre-school children and four teachers hostage at a kindergarten in a dramatic seven-hour stand-off had died after being shot in the head

Authorities said all the children and their teachers were rescued unharmed after a sharpshooter ended the crisis in southern Malaysia with a single shot after a team of elite police stormed the building.

“We have ended the hostage taking. The children and teachers are safe. The hostage taker armed with a hammer and machete has been taken to a local hospital,” a police official said on condition of anonymity.

Late yesterday Johor Deputy Police Chief Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the man was also responsible for a 2010 attack on another kindergarten in the same area – Muar – in which three six-year-olds were bludgeoned with a hammer.

On that occasion the attacker escaped and could not be traced by police.

After the latest attack witnesses said the children were calm and showed no fear as they emerged from the building, singing songs led by their teachers and walking into the waiting arms of their cheering parents who hugged them tightly.

But many looked tired as they had been without food and water throughout their ordeal.

Mr Jalaluddin told reporters that the 40-year-old hostage-taker, who was in critical condition after being shot in the head, had died around 9.15 p.m.

“The suspect has died after being hit with a bullet,” he said, adding that the individual had two drug-related convictions in 1995 and 2000. Mr Jalaluddin also confirmed that the hostage-taker was responsible for the 2010 attack in the same district when three children and a woman at another pre-school were seriously injured.

The children and teachers have been taken for medical checks at the hospital in Muar town, in southern Johor state which borders Singapore.