CANBERRA—Australian travel agents taken hostage in China have told of the terrifying moment they realised they were being held by a man with a bomb strapped to his body.
It also emerged the Chinese translator with the group calmly reassured friends of the agents in Australia of their welfare, even while he was being held hostage.
The 10 travel agents were today safe and being looked after by Australian consular staff in Shanghai and were expected to fly home tonight.
They were on a bus with their translator at the Bell and Drum Tower Square in the north-west city of Xi'an, famous for its Terracotta Warriors, when a Chinese national armed with explosives seized the vehicle yesterday.
The man soon released nine of the Australians.
But a 48-year-old NSW woman and the translator, Eric, were kept captive for several hours.
Police tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the hijacker before agreeing to let him change buses and drive to the airport.
A police sniper shot and killed the man as he approached a toll station, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the Australian woman and the translator were in the vehicle at the time.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said some of the Australians had required minor medical treatment, as well as counselling.
"The woman from NSW was particularly distressed, as you'd expect ... but has bounced back very quickly," he told ABC radio.
Rhiannon Dunkley, a 22-year-old from Corowa, was among those quickly released, and soon told friends in her home town of the ordeal.
She told a colleague in Corowa, Sue Wynne, that the hijacker had ranted and raved.
"He was pacing up and down the bus, they couldn't understand what he was saying, but they said by the look on their guide Eric's face they knew something was amiss," Ms Wynne said today.
"And then he turned around, opened up his jacket and he had a bomb strapped to him."
Ms Dunkley's father-in-law Gary Dunkley said his daughter-in-law had been terrified when she saw the bomber had explosives.
"She had noticed that this guy was acting suspiciously on the bus and when he swung around they noticed the bomb strapped to him and three or four spotted (it) and they just did a bolt off the bus straight away," he told ABC radio.
The man, armed with explosives, released nine of the Australians soon after.
But even as he was being held hostage with the NSW woman, the translator, Eric, took a call from Ms Wynne in Corowa and told her what had happened.
Eric reassured her that others would be taken care of, she said.
"He was very calm and I just said what should I tell Rhiannon to do and he said, just tell her to stay at the airport with the other girls, we've sent some local guides, they will be there, and they will find them at the airport and they will get there."
The agents were on an eight-day travel familiarisation tour of Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai, organised by Sydney-based travel wholesale company China Bestours.
China Bestours general manager Jimmy Liu said the agents, from NSW, Victoria and Queensland, had been on trip - one of a number organised by the company each year - to learn more about China.
"They sell our products and we bring them to China so they can know more about our product."
Mr Smith said there was nothing to suggest the Australians were particularly targeted and the motivation for the attack remained unclear.
"We've asked for a full briefing to try to understand the motivation," Mr Smith said.
The Chinese embassy in Canberra was not commenting on the incident, referring questions to the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing.
Mr Liu insisted that China remained a safe destination for tourists ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
"This is very rare. It's never happened before," he said.
But US intelligence group Stratfor says such an incident is hard to prepare for ahead of the Olympics.
Stratfor suggested the motive was likely domestic.
"Chinese citizens, disgruntled with their jobs or personal lives or for any number of other reasons, have been known to hold up buses, tourist groups and restaurants, usually with explosives which are easier to acquire than guns in China," it said.
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