BEIJING - A HIJACKER armed with explosives took an Australian tourist and a translator hostage in China on Wednesday before police shot and killed him, Chinese and Australian media reported.

Initially 10 Australians were taken hostage on a tourist bus in the city of Xi'an in northwest China but nine were released, Australia's national AAP news agency reported.

It said Chinese police then intervened and secured the release of the tenth Australian, a 48-year-old woman from New South Wales.