Siem Reap, Cambodia – Masked gunmen seized dozens of children at an international school in northwestern Cambodia on today, killing a 3-year-old Canadian boy and threatening to shoot the others one by one before police rescued the hostages, authorities said.
The attackers stormed the Siem Reap International School, grabbing dozens of youngsters from several countries and demanding money, weapons and a vehicle in a six-hour standoff. Officers rushed the compound, and four gunmen were reported arrested, with at least one of them wounded.
The gunmen killed the boy when authorities declined to meet all of their demands, Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said, quoting the deputy national police chief, Neth Savoeun.
“They also threatened to kill the children one by one. Then our forces decided to storm the school,” Khieu Kanharith said.
He described the victim as a 3-year-old Canadian, although that could not be immediately confirmed by the Canadian Embassy. A witness whose child used to attend the school also identified the victim as a Canadian boy about that age.
Gunshots were heard by witnesses just before the children fled the school and the gunmen were seized. Denis Richer, a Frenchman who said he teaches at another school in the booming tourist town, said he saw one of the hostage-takers lying wounded on the ground afterward.
Early in the day, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in the capital, Phnom Penh, that the attackers appeared to be security guards at the school. But police said late today the men were criminals aged 22 to 25 from the southeastern province of Kandal, and teachers did not recognize them.
“Four hostage-takers have been arrested. There are only four of them,” Deputy Military Police Commander Prak Chanthoeum said.
The crisis unfolded at Cambodia’s tourism hub of Siem Reap, which is near the famed Angkor temples and is home to many expatriates. The town has many establishments serving the international tourist trade, and children from at least 15 nations attend the school.
The men originally took about 70 hostages but released 30 during the siege, the information minister said.
Prak Chanthoeum said the attackers “were armed with shotguns” and had demanded $1,000, six AK-47 assault rifles, six shotguns, B-40 grenade launchers, hand grenades and a car. He said $30,000 and a van were given to the men, but they continued to demand guns and grenades.
A Western resident in Siem Reap said she was told by a teacher at the school that the children taken hostage, most of them aged 2 to 6, were from Cambodia, Italy, Indonesia, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Ireland, Singapore, Britain, Australia, Canada, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Switzerland.
