Police officers shot dead a man in downtown Shanghai yesterday afternoon after a seven-hour standoff. The man had taken a four-year-old girl hostage in a KFC outlet.

At around 3 PM on Wednesday, a middle-aged man entered the restaurant and seized the young girl on the first floor of a shopping mall on Yangliuqing Road in Putuo District.

At 9:40 PM, the man attempted to injure the girl with a knife at which police were forced to shoot him. Local police attempted to negotiate with the man but reported his attitude continually worsened.

The girl escaped unharmed from her traumatic ordeal, police said, and was safely reunited with her mother who had been in the restaurant as her daughter was seized.

Police are still investigating the man's identity and any possible motives.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)