Police free woman and kill kidnapper

Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province rescued a woman from kidnappers, shooting dead one of the gang as he held a knife to her neck.

The woman, who is thought to have had been kidnapped in a car park, suffered only minor injuries.

Three men have been held in connection with the incident.

The drama began at around 7:30am on Sunday when police in Pu'er City were checking vehicles. Suddenly, a man in the back of a car produced a knife and put it against the neck of a woman sitting in the vehicle.

He told police to let them through or he would harm the woman, before the vehicle sped away.

At 11am that day, police saw the same vehicle and brought it to a halt at a roadblock in Menglian County.

Three men got out while the fourth man remained in the damaged vehicle with the woman, holding a knife to her throat. He demanded police give them another car and let them leave the country. Myanmar is nearby.

During negotiations, the woman received knife wounds to her neck and hands.

After seven hours, the man holding the knife was shot dead and three others held at the scene. The dead man was identified as a 31-year-old Hunan Province native surnamed Tian.

Police linked the case to the kidnapping of a woman surnamed Bai in an underground parking lot in provincial capital Kunming the previous day.