Canadian boy killed in Cambodian seige; Police storm school

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Gunmen stormed a Cambodian school today taking kindergardeners and teachers hostage.

The men entered Siem Reap International School, a Cambodian elementary school in Siem Reap (near Angkor Wat), earlier today.

The gunmen killed one Canadian boy of an unknown age, apparently after he would not stop crying. Police began negotiating with the hostage takers after the killing.

Cambodian police raided the school after the hostages had been held for six hours. Two gunmen, along with the Canadian child, have reportedly died, while the police have detained four more suspects. The surviving hostages have now been freed.

"All of a sudden the gates opened and people came running out with children in their arms," said John McDermott, a correspondent for CNN.

Most of the children that were held hostage are the sons and daughters of hotel workers. According to a resident, the hostages were Singaporean, Korean, Japanese, Australian, Taiwanese, Irish, British, Swiss, Indonesian, Canadian, Indian, American, Italian, and Filipino.

She added, "The gunmen let one class go, but they [were] holding the kindergarten class."

The Siem Reap International School has served as a support system for the rapidly increasing number of expatriate workers attracted by Cambodia's tourist industry upsurge, one of the very few boosters of the severely impoverished nation's economy.

Share this:

Sources

Karishma Vyas and Ek Madra. "Cambodian school siege ends, Canadian child dead" — Reuters, June 16, 2005
"Cambodian school hostage drama" — Australia Broadcasting Company, June 16, 2005
"Child dies as hostage crisis ends" — CNN, June 16, 2005
"Some 30 hostages released by armed men in Cambodia" — People's Daily, June 16, 2005

The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
Please note that this only applies to Wikinews content created prior to September 25, 2005. All content created after that date is released under a Creative Commons license which is mentioned at the bottom of each article. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.