THE GUNMAN WHO hijacked a bus in Manila today has been killed by police who jumped into the bus after the day-long stand-off.
Authorities had surrounded the bus after several gunshots were heard, but had difficulty in boarding the vehicle.
Rolando Mendoza, a dismissed police inspector, had taken 25 people hostage before releasing nine of them to police negotiators. After hijacking the bus this morning, he demanded being reinstated to his old police job.
Police told Al Jazeera that Mendoza shot one of their officers during their first assault on the vehicle, but they had killed him in the second assault.
The Red Cross says that at least five of the hostages remaining on board had survived. Local TV showed images of the police pulling bodies from the bus.
A spokesperson for the police in Manila had said earlier today that Mendoza was cooperating with them, and use of force was considered a last resort in tackling the hijacker.
The hijacker had placed a note on the door of the bus saying: “Big deal will start after 3pm today”, but the deadline passed without incident.
Later, a second message was placed in the window saying: “Big mistake to correct a big wrong decision.”
The nine hostages released earlier on, including three children, were uninjured.
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