Vietnamese commandos stormed a hotel in the central city of Hue and captured an army sergeant who had taken a schoolgirl hostage. The commandos overpowered Nguyen Van Minh, 20, Sunday after a 16-hour standoff. Neither Minh nor his hostage were seriously harmed.
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| All streets around the hotel were sealed off. | |
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| Early Sunday morning, Minh and his hostage were both taken to hospital for tear-gas inhalation. |
Lieutenant Colonel Dang Ngoc Nghia of the army command for the Thua Thien-Hue province said Minh would be charged with kidnapping and illegally appropriating weapons.
Minh, a sergeant in the central province of Nghe An, was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a hand grenade he had taken from his unit's depot, Nghia said.
Minh had been informally engaged to a young woman living in Hue, the capital of Thua Thien-Hue province, having told her family he was an army officer.
When the woman's family discovered he was a mere soldier, they postponed the formal engagement ceremony.
On Saturday, apparently angered by the family's decision, Minh allegedly took the gun and hand grenade from his base and travelled to Hue to find his girlfriend.
Military police caught up with him at the house of the woman's family. Minh then fled, taking a schoolgirl hostage on the street and taking refuge in a nearby hotel.
The Vietnamese press reported that Minh fired on military police numerous times from the hotel's windows while police and his girlfriend's family tried to negotiate with him.
Commandos fired tear-gas canisters into the hotel before storming it Sunday.
Minh's hostage, who was taken to hospital for tear-gas inhalation, reportedly said her kidnapper had treated her well and told her he had no desire to live after the engagement's postponement.
Colonel Nguyen Duc Hoa, political commissar of Minh's army division, said he had been a good soldier and was appointed squad leader.
If convicted, Minh faces at least 12 years in prison.
