Police shot and killed a man who took a woman barber hostage with a razor in downtown Chongqing Municipality in southwest China on Friday.

An eyewitness told Xinhua that police had tried for half an hour to persuade the hostage taker to drop the razor, but he continued threatening to kill the woman.

The barber was slightly wounded. It is not clear why the man took the woman as hostage.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2009)