Police in the Philippines have conceded they made blunders when trying to end yesterday's bus hijacking in Manila.
Eight tourists from Hong Kong died when police stormed the hijacked bus in the Philippines capital after a 12-hour stand off.
Police fired dozens of bullets into the bus and smashed its windows with sledgehammers as they tried to storm it, but were then forced to wait outside helplessly for over an hour as the hijacker used his captives as human shields.
The stand-off in Manila's tourist district finally ended when police fired tear gas into the bus and a sniper shot the gunman in the head, but by then eight of the tourists on board had been killed.
Amid a storm of criticism from Hong Kong's government and people around the world who watched the situation live on television, Manila police commander Leocadio Santiago admitted mistakes had been made.
‘We saw some obvious shortcomings in terms of capability and tactics used, or the procedure employed and we are now going to investigate this,’ Mr Santiago said on local television.
He and President Benigno Aquino promised to investigate all aspects of the 12-hour ordeal, which began when a disgruntled sacked policeman armed with an M-16 assault rifle hijacked a bus carrying 25 people, mostly Hong Kong tourists.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang expressed anger at the handling of the crisis and insisted that he must get answers.
‘We demand that the Philippine authorities conduct a detailed and comprehensive investigation on the incident. They must provide a full account to us as soon as possible,’ Mr Tsang said.
Mr Tsang also urged all Hong Kong tour groups in the Philippines to return home, and organised two chartered flights to take relatives of the hostages, as well as psychologists, doctors and social workers, to Manila.
