A Chinese man stabbed himself in the chest in a bid to commit suicide after police forced their way into his Tuol Kok district apartment Saturday to free a woman he had held hostage for more than a week, officials said.
Huo Minh, 33, was receiving treatment in Preah Kossamak Hospital on Monday for a self-inflicted knife wound, while his hostage, Zieng Yuhor, 34, also from China, was treated for cuts to her face and hands, and for other injuries sustained while held prisoner for more than a week, district police chief Mok Hong said.
An employee at a garment factory in Phnom Penh, Huo Minh abducted Zieng Yuhor and held her handcuffed and chained in his apartment while he telephoned the woman’s relatives in China demanding that they transfer $20,000 for her release, Mok Hong said.
Tipped off to the kidnapping, police staked out the apartment on Street 210 in Toek La’Ork III commune at 6 pm on Saturday, but delayed a forced entry when they saw what appeared to be a booby-trap bomb attached to the door.
The device, a mobile telephone taped to a tin can, turned out to be a hoax, and at 8 am Sunday members of the Interior Ministry’s anti-terrorist unit forced their way into the apartment and rescued the woman, Mok Hong said.
“This was a kidnapping case,” said Nov Leakhena, chief of the Interior Ministry’s anti-terrorism unit.
“I led a force to raid the offender’s house and rescue the victim after the woman’s parents complained to the National Police through the Chinese Embassy,” he said.
Chinese Embassy Third Secretary Qian Hai said Monday that he was not in charge of the case, and recommended calling the national police.
Huo Minh is still in the emergency ward at Preah Kossamak Hospital and might have died from his own stab wound if it was not treated quickly, Mok Hong added.
