Machete man killed in Malaysian school siege

A machete-wielding man who took 30 children and four teachers hostage for six hours in a Malaysian infant school was shot dead by police today.

None of captives was harmed during the tense hostage drama in the southern city of Muar in Johor state.

The crisis ended when the 40-year-old man was shot in the head by a single bullet, said Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman, the state’s deputy police chief.

During negotiations the man threatened to kill the children unless he was given a gun, another officer said.

The officer said the man was wielding a machete and a hammer when he barged into the kindergarten early in the morning, sparking a stand-off with police.

The man, believed to have mental problems, forced the hostages to go upstairs in the two-storey building. Police special forces later managed to enter the ground floor and were heading up the stairs when the man attacked them with his weapons and a fire extinguisher, the officer said.

He said police had no choice but to shoot the man.

The children had been heard singing in what was believed to be an attempt to calm the man, the Bernama news agency reported.