Siege survivors head for home
Updated: 2008-03-07 10:28
The 10 Australian survivors of a fatal hostage siege in the popular tourist city of Xi'an left Shanghai for Sydney yesterday.
A man armed with explosives attacked the group of Australian travel agents when they were visiting the northwest city of Xi'an, famed as the home of the Terracotta Warriors.
The hostage taker, a worker in Xi'an, released nine of the hostages after boarding the bus at about 10am on Wednesday. He kept a 48-year-old Australian woman and a translator as hostage.
Police shot and killed the man after unsuccessful negotiations. No one else was hurt.
One of the hostages told a friend and a family member by phone that most of the Australians ran from the bus as soon as they saw the man had explosives strapped to his body, according to the Associated Press.
"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," said Sue Wynne, a colleague of one of the hostages, 22-year-old Rhiannon Dunkley.
"The man turned around, opened up his jacket and he had a bomb strapped to him."
Dunkley's father-in-law, Gary Dunkley, said he had also spoken to her by phone.
"She had noticed that this guy was acting suspiciously on the bus and when he swung around they noticed the bomb strapped to him. Three or four spotted it and they just did a bolt off the bus straight away," he told ABC radio.
Nine of the hostages left the bus quickly but a 48-year-old woman from New South Wales stayed on the bus with the group's translator during the hijacker's nearly three-hour standoff with police.
A sniper finally shot and killed the man, Xia Tao.
In Canberra, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said there was nothing to suggest the Australians were deliberately targeted and the motive for the attack remained unclear.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China will ensure foreign tourists' safety during the Olympics in August.
He also expressed sympathy for the Australians. "I sincerely hope they will come to travel in China again and won't consider China unsafe just because of this case."
"China is a safe place for foreigners and we will continue to provide a sound and safe environment for them to work, study, live and travel in the country," Qin said.
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