Knifepoint hostage

It was a terrifying moment.

As passers-by looked on helplessly, a man wielding a cleaver grabbed a woman in the street.

He threatened to cut her throat in the incident at Kunming News Centre in China's south-west Yunnan province on Monday.

The Shanghai Daily reported that the police cordoned off the area and attempted to negotiate with him.

After about an hour a man, who appeared to be an unarmed undercover police officer, approached from the side and tackled the man to the ground as the woman slipped from his grasp.

She reportedly fainted and was taken to hospital.

The officer was also injured as he subdued the man, The Independent reported. The suspect had injuries to his right hand.

The case is being investigated by the police and it is still not known why the man took the woman hostage.

Radio Free Asia reported last month that 29 people were killed in Kunming in a knife attack by a group of about 10 attackers.

MACHETES, KNIVES

The gang, wearing black, brandished machetes and knives as they approached the railway station.

They stabbed and slashed people at the ticket booths, leaving 29 dead and more than 130 injured, Reuters reported.

The authorities blamed the attacks on separatists from the Xinjiang Uighur region.

This article was published on April 10 in The New Paper.

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