Chinese police shot and killed a knife-wielding man who injured three people and took another hostage in a Carrefour store in the southwestern city of Kunming after a four-hour standoff on Saturday.

A man with a knife injured three people and took another hostage in a Carrefour store. Local police are trying now to rescue the hostage.

Authorities received an emergency call at 9:48 a.m. from witnesses saying that a man wielding a knife was hacking at customers in the French retail outlet.

Witnesses told Xinhua the man injured three customers on the second floor, took another one hostage on the third floor and was hiding in an office.

A female nurse was sent inside to treat the injured, police said the man then took the nurse hostage and released the other person he had been holding.

The three injured customers are being treated at a local hospital. One of them is in critical condition.

The motives behind the attack are unknown.

The attack took place in the Carrefour store on Longquan Road in Yunnan's provincial capital's northern suburbs.

The Longquan store opened Sept. 8, 2006. It is the fourth Carrefour outlet in Kunming. It spans more than 7,000 square meters.

Since entering the Chinese market in 1995, Carrefour has opened 118 stores on the Chinese mainland. It employs almost 50,000 people.

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2008)