Philippines police capture four kidnappers

Police in the Philippines say they have carried out a raid on the northern Manila hideout of a kidnap gang and captured four suspects.

Officials said a policeman was killed in the operation in the densely-populated San Francisco del Monte neighborhood which began after the gang had released three people they had abducted on Monday.

The officials said that the kidnappers responded to tear gas with automatic weapons fire and surrendered only after they had run out of bullets.

The four suspects are accused of kidnapping a Chinese-Filipino women, her son and a driver outside a school in Manila. Correspondents say the clash underlines the growing problem of kidnapping in the Philippines.

Last week, President Gloria Arroyo vowed to fight the trend by lifting a moratorium on the death penalty and ordering that kidnappers should be the first to be executed.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service