flash report!!! school bus held hostage near manila cityhall

[shadow]

ngayon live sa TV and radio...kawawa mga bata....

[OTEP]

Holy crap, pano nangyari ito? Live sa ANC now.

[leinahtan]

32 students, 2 teachers held hostage by 3 men. Ano na naman ba ito??

[BlueBimmer]

amff ano ba naman yan...lapit pa sa city hall...

[artpogi]

Was reading awhile back, I hope the PNP don't screw this one up.

[mazdamazda]

MANILA, Philippines -- A school bus with at least 32 students and two teachers were taken hostage by still unidentified armed suspects in Manila Wednesday morning, reports culled by INQUIRER.net said.

Police Officer 1 Mark Andal of the Manila Police District Operations center said the bus was bound for Universidad de Manila but a report on local television said the bus was on its way to Tagaytay City for a field trip when the armed men held its students and teachers hostage at past 9 a.m.

Live television footage of the incident showed a letter posted on one of the windows informing authorities that there were two teachers, 32 children, and three armed hostage-takers on board and a demand for the “education of 145 children from the Musmos Daycare.”

The same television report said the suspects, in their letter, claimed that they were armed with a grenade, Uzi, and .45-caliber pistols.

The same report said the driver, Deogracias Bugarin, had been forced out of bus.

Errr... ang labo naman ng reason nila...

[kotiko]

SYET NAKAKAPIKON! These kinds of crap ruin the country's image!

[shadow]

nag hostage nyun mismong may ari yata ng day care center...demand niya is to guarantee education for all the students na na hostage niya....

[XUV-AT2002]

No TV or radio here in my workplace. Please give relevant details as it happen thanks. Let's pray for peaceful settlement. Thnaks

[JohnM]

Bilis kumalat ng balita: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapc....ap/index.html

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Gunmen fleeing from a hold-up seized a bus carrying more than 30 students and teachers in downtown Manila on Wednesday and police surrounded the vehicle, officials said.

Hostage-takers scribbled on a piece of paper, visible through the bus window, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with grenades, an assault rifle and a pistol, officer Mark Andal said.

TV footage showed the young children waving from the windows and a woman standing with a gunman near her brandishing a grenade.

Police encircled the stalled vehicle near Manila's city hall and officials said they had begun negotiating with the attackers.

Manila police chief Reynaldo Varilla said officials believe that two gunmen were fleeing a hold-up and seized the bus to avoid capture.

"They saw a bus loaded with pupils," he told DZMM radio. "Right now negotiations are ongoing. We hope we can have them surrender peacefully so no one will be hurt."

There was no immediate word on the ages of the students or details on the reported hold-up.