Relatives of one of the eight hostages killed in Monday's hijacking drama in Manila are assisted by a Buddhist monk Tuesday as they visit the site of the hostage siege. Philippine police conceded Tuesday that they made blunders in ending the bus hijacking, as outrage grew over the bloody assault that played out on live television and left eight Hong Kong tourists dead. Photo: AFP

By Zhu Shanshan

A wave of mourning and anger washed across China Tuesday over Monday's cold-blooded killings of Hong Kong tourists in the Philippine capital and from what many people are calling incompetence by police in handling a volatile hostage situation.

After a 10-hour standoff on a hijacked bus in Manila, eight Hong Kong tourists were shot dead and seven were injured by the hostage-taker - a dismissed police officer who was eventually killed by his former brothers in arms.

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region released on its website Tuesday the names of those killed - four men and four women aged between 14 and 57 - as well as the names of injured passengers who remained under observation in Philippine hospitals.

A survivor of the bus siege spoke to reporters Tuesday, identifying herself as Leung - the wife of Ken Leung Kam-wing and mother of two daughters, all of whom died in the shooting. She expressed her frustration at the handling of the standoff.

"Why didn't the Philippine police interfere earlier? They could have saved us, but they did not," she told reporters.

Two rescued Hong Kong hostages left Manila on a chartered flight last night, heading back to Hong Kong, and the other injured Hongkongers who are able to be moved, will be flown back today, according to Sun Yi, a press officer at the Chinese embassy in Manila, who spoke to the Global Times by phone.

A team sent by the Chinese government arrived in Manila Tuesday morning to deal with the aftermath and help tend to the victims and survivors, Sun said.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi have demanded a thorough investigation by the Philippines government into the incident.

A few Hong Kong politicians and citizens protested outside the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong Tuesday afternoon to express their fury over the handling of the crisis.

Leung Ka-shing, who was with the special duties unit of the Hong Kong police between 1983 and 1991, described the rescue operation as a failure and unprofessional, telling the Global Times it appeared the police didn't care about the lives of the hostages.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino admitted at a press conference hours after the situation ended that the local police and the government failed in some regards.

But he was also vehement in blaming TV and radio stations for broadcasting live at the scene, saying it worsened the situation by irritating the gunman, who found out his brother, a policeman, had been arrested for carrying a gun during the negotiations.

Aquino declared today a day of national mourning for the victims, ordering all government agencies, including the country's embassies and consulates abroad, to lower the Philippine flags to half-staff.

Pak-nung Wong, a professor with the Chinese University of Hong Kong specializing in research on the Philippine police and military, told the Global Times that the police made at least two mistakes that led to the tragedy.

"Firstly, local police were strategically wrong to identify the gunman as just a desperate civilian. The ex-policeman was an extremely dangerous criminal armed with weapons, whom the police should have been highly aware of," Wong said.

"Secondly, the timing was bad for police to storm in. When the gunman put up a note 'Media Now,' it suggested that the negotiations between the suspect and the police had broken down, and instead of waiting, snipers should have been deployed right away to take down the hijacker," he said.

Su Hao, director of the Center of Asia-Pacific Studies at China Foreign Affairs University, advised against Chinese being overly critical of the Philippine police.

"I believe the Philippine police lacked experience and competence in rescuing the hostages, but their desire to rescue the hostages was strong," he said.

Wu Guoyi and Liu Linlin contributed to the story