Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Two Britons survive Philippines hijacking


Two Britons were among the survivors of the Philippines hostage crisis, the Foreign Office confirmed on Tuesday.

Eight Hong Kong tourists were killed during the 12-hour siege on a bus in Manila, which ended with police shooting dead the Filipino hostage-taker.

The Foreign Office said it had offered consular assistance and was ready to provide it if needed.

"I can confirm that there are two British nationals (in Manila) but they are safe and well now," a spokesman said.

Philippine police conceded Tuesday they had made blunders during the incident, as outrage grew over the bloody assault that was played out on live television.

Commandos fired bullets into the bus and smashed its windows with sledgehammers, but were then forced to wait outside for more than an hour as the hijacker used his captives as human shields.

The stand-off in Manila's tourist district on Monday finally ended when police fired tear gas into the bus and a sniper shot the gunman in the head, but by then eight of the tourists on board had been killed.

Amid a storm of criticism from Hong Kong's government and people around the world, Manila police commander Leocadio Santiago admitted mistakes had been made.

"We saw some obvious shortcomings in terms of capability and tactics used, or the procedure employed and we are now going to investigate this," Santiago said on local television.

He and President Benigno Aquino promised to investigate all aspects of the incident, which began when a sacked policeman armed with an M-16 assault rifle hijacked a bus carrying 25 people.

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