Australian travel agents in China hijack terror
XIAN – Eyewitnesses have described a scene in which a hijacker was shot dead after taking a group of Australian woman hostage in China.
Ten travel agents from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane were caught up in the drama yesterday in the popular tourist city of Xian.
The women had been part of a famil organied by Sydney-based travel wholesale company China Bestours.
The 10 travel agents are now safe and being looked after by Australian consular staff in Shanghai. They are expected to fly home tonight.
The Melbourne Age reported that a man armed with explosives boarded their bus and kept the terrorised tourists captive for several hours.
The Chinese hijacker, who had threatened to blow up the centre of Xian, was later killed by a sniper.
Nine of the group were released early in the ordeal, but a 48-year-old woman from NSW was not released with the others and was there when the man when he shot dead.
One of the hostages told friends back in Australia, “He was pacing up and down the bus, they couldn’t understand what he was saying, but they said by the look on their guide Eric’s face they knew something was amiss,
Australian Nick Hunt told The Age he was on his way to Xian airport in a taxi when he came upon the scene about 20 minutes after the hijacker was shot dead.
Hunt, the general manager of Nufarm in China, said he saw tens of dozens of police and men in camouflage, some with automatic weapons, on the scene.
He said the bus was at an angle across the road blocking most of the airport freeway.
“The whole area between the toll gate and the bus was swarming with armed uniformed police and para-military types with dozen of vehicles,” Hunt, who is based in Shanghai, said.
“The staff manning the toll gate were in a state of near panic and were just waving cars through.
“The actual hijacking was over by that stage and I saw no sign of the hijacker or hostages.
“Actually, the first thing that came to mind was they were making some type of movie, because every second person seemed to have a large video camera and microphone.
“They were doing interviews, filming marching troops in front of the bus and taking general footage of the scene. Quite surreal, actually.”
Xian newspaper Hua Shang Bao reported on its website that a local worker, Xia Tao, held up the bus about 10am local time in the middle of the city’s central Belltower Square, saying he had an explosive device, possibly dynamite.
Police agreed to Xia’s requests for negotiations after he threatened to blow up the city centre. He eventually released nine tourists but held hostage the NSW woman and a translator for an unknown period, said Janaline Oh, a spokeswoman for the Australian embassy in Beijing.
Chinese authorities later stormed the bus and released the woman. Police gave Xia another vehicle and allowed him to drive to the airport.
Three hours after the hijacking began, he stopped at a toll gate near the airport where police called out to him to get out of the car before a sniper shot him dead.
Report from the Melbourne Age
Ian Jarrett
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