Man in Malaysian kindergarten siege dies

A hammer-wielding man who held 30 children and their teachers hostage at a kindergarten in Malaysia has died of injuries.

Loi Hui Chung, 40, entered the kindergarten in Sg Abong, in the southern district of Muar, at around 9.00am local time yesterday armed with a hammer and a machete.

He barricaded 30 children and four teachers on the second floor of the school building and threatened to harm the children unless a gun was given to him by negotiators.

Authorities brought in a dozen members of the police special action unit from the capital, Kuala Lumpur, about 160km away.

Loi's siblings and an uncle were also brought to the scene in the hope that they would be able to persuade him to surrender.

When that failed, a decision was made to storm the building, with commandos firing a smoke bomb and entering the kindergarten to end the six-hour stand-off.

Loi, 40, was shot in the head and taken to the Sultanah Fatimah Hospital where he died at 9.15pm local time yesterday.

Two police officers suffered injuries to their faces and hands during the siege.

Muar was the scene of a similar kindergarten siege in March last year when a man with a hammer entered a school and left three six-year-olds with head injuries.