Society
Students safe after hostage situation
By Yan Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-24 08:16
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The motive of a man who took 65 schoolchildren hostage in a rural school on Monday, including his own two children, is likely to remain a puzzle.
 Police detain a man, surnamed Yuan, who held 65 students hostage at a school in Xincai county, Henan province, on Monday. None of the students, who included Yuan's two children, were injured but his motive remains unclear. [Wang Yuxin/China Daily] |
"We have to make further investigations," Wu Jun, police chief from the security bureau of Xincai in Henan province, said over the phone.
Wu dismissed earlier media reports that the man, surnamed Yuan, was trying to gain the attention of higher-ranking officials to resolve disputes with his neighbor.
According to local media, Yuan entered a classroom at a rural primary school in Xincai county early on Monday with an axe and nails, pretending to be a carpenter mending windows.
When all 65 first-grade students arrived for classes, Yuan began to fasten the door with the nails.
It was not until the headmaster arrived upon a teacher's call that Yuan pulled a machete used for killing pigs out of his cotton coat, effectively taking the children and one teacher hostage in the classroom.
Yuan asked the headmaster outside the classroom to call some high-ranking officials to help with a dispute with his neighbor. He threatened to hurt the students if the problem was not solved immediately.
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The standoff continued for two hours after police arrived, and it seemed more and more likely that Yuan might hurt the students with the machete.
At 10:10 am, police broke into the classroom at the very moment Yuan grabbed and was about to kill a student. He was forced to the ground within seconds.
No student was injured when held hostage.
The local police are now trying to figure out Yuan's motive for the act.
"The man had just returned from other provinces as a migrant worker," Wu said. "He stayed at a nearby town overnight before taking the students hostage."
"How could this man get into a dispute with his neighbor without going back home?" Wu asked.
